Tale of the Setting Sun
by Guilty Bird
Summary: AU. Naruto was born with hair as red as his mother's – but with a face and intellect that paralleled his father, the Fourth Hokage. Will the revolution he brings be the world's salvation or destruction?
1. Hope

**Tale of the Setting Sun**

Chapter 1: "Hope"

* * *

"_When the tree leaves dance, one shall find flames. The fire's shadow will illuminate the village, and once again, tree leaves shall bud anew."_

* * *

By the time Naruto Uzumaki had turned five years old, he had come to realize that a good majority of the people in his village hated him.

It was not an immediate realization: as the haze of colors and sounds called infancy slowly but inevitably passed, he first came into the awareness of his individuality. Looking down at his stubby toes and observing how they wriggled at his every command, he saw that he was his own person – his body and mind belonged to him and only him, and as far as he could tell, every other person that he saw possessed this right. All of the people in his village were the same as him in this regard.

However, he gradually began to see differences between these other people and himself. When Naruto first visited the village playground at the age of four, he saw many other children running around in the dust. Another young boy was chasing them making threatening sounds, and Naruto felt rather frightened – however, the other children were laughing as if they were having fun. When he asked another child what was going on, he looked at Naruto strangely and asked him if he'd never played 'tag' before.

When Naruto returned to his home that evening and asked his caretaker – a stern-faced woman with dark hair – about the game, she merely slammed a bowl of rice down on his table and told him to stay away from the other children. He didn't understand why the other children could play 'tag' together and why he couldn't, but his caretaker's hand was even faster and sharper than her words, so he shut up and ate his dinner.

But from then on, though he didn't approach the other children, he did start going out more by himself. He was quite sick of the tattered book of folk tales that he had thumbed through since he was two, and felt that he was a bit too old for the cracked old wooden blocks he'd once fondly stacked for hours before. And after all, he'd quite enjoyed the feel of the sun and wind on his skin. The few times he had been out in public before, he had usually been with his caretaker, who always insisted on him covering his face with a black scarf. She'd told him it was so that he wouldn't pick up any diseases, but now that he was exploring the streets of his village, he was beginning to have second thoughts.

Wherever he went, inevitably, he was followed by an intense storm of heated whispering. He hadn't realized at first; even following the realization of his individuality, he'd never thought of himself as particularly unique. He'd read before in his book of folk tales that no two snowflakes were alike; and as such, so were people. But in the winter, when snow covered the village, there were so many snowflakes that he couldn't possibly distinguish between them. This, he realized could be the same for himself, and for everyone else.

And yet somehow, these people managed to point him out – a single snowflake in a flurry of snow. They pointed him out with barely disguised grimaces, they ushered their children away from him, admonishing them for walking too close to him, and chased him out of their stores. The first time this happened, Naruto wondered if they wanted to play 'tag' with him and felt happy...until they slammed the door in his face, leaving him outside in the dust. Before he could get up, he heard a spitting sound, and he felt a warm sensation on his face. When he touched his face and looked at his hand, it was wet.

He was quite shaken by that, and immediately returned to his home afterwards. Ignoring the dinner his caretaker had left out on the table, he crawled into his bed with the lights off and the blinds to his window closed shut. He stared into the darkness for the rest of the day, trembling.

All of the following days that he went outside ended quite similarly. As time went on, even the other children began to notice him – and unlike the adults, they publicly taunted him with a blunt cruelty that only children knew.

Naruto observed this all and every night, stared into the darkness. He pondered his situation, trying to find an answer to the question of why he, as an individual, was targeted in such a manner. He wondered at first if it was because of his appearance; after all, when he ventured outside with his black scarf on, nobody treated him like an aberration, or even worse – pretend he didn't exist. He was treated tolerantly and almost fondly when he blended into the anonymity of childhood, just like the others his age.

Recently, some of the other children had started to call him 'tomato-head' because of the shock of red hair that framed his thin face, but he did not think that could be why he was so hated. He had examined his features quite closely at one point; his hair color was a bit unusual, but he had seen a girl with bright pink hair in the playground quite a few times, and nobody ever glared at her or said unkind things to her. He had blue eyes, a quite ordinary trait, and though he was a bit small for his age, he was in no way deformed. He had counted carefully, and he had one head, a face with all of its features, two arms, hands, and feet, and ten fingers and toes, just like every other child (some of the adults sometimes were missing a finger or a limb). In fact, the only really unique thing about him was the faint whisker-like birthmarks on his cheeks. But Naruto couldn't see how they were any different from how certain clans, like the Inuzuka, marked their members; for all he knew, this could've been a trait of the Uzumaki clan.

That was another mystery that he had so many questions about: his clan and his parents. He knew that he was an orphan; his caretaker had told him that much. His situation was fairly common following the Third Shinobi World War and the attack of the Kyūbi (_Nine-tails__)_: his apartment was not too far from the orphanage, which teemed with children. And yet Naruto himself had not been placed in the orphanage, but rather, raised under a caretaker. Who paid the caretaker to take care of him? And why would no one tell him about his parents – as if it were taboo?

Looking into the darkness, his thoughts unimpeded by jeers and glares, Naruto eventually came to a conclusion. Having compared his behavior to that of other children, he knew that he himself could not be at fault for the behavior of the village people towards him. He never asked for anything that he didn't need, he ate all of his vegetables, and he always obeyed his caretaker. And as he had reasoned out before, it couldn't be his appearance. However, something about his looks tipped the villagers off about who he was, so he realized that something about him – could it be the red hair? The whisker-like marks? – must have been a trademark of his clan.

The only reason he could think of why he would be hated on sight would be if his mysterious parents or his ancestral clan had done something terrible to the village before he was born. And then, they had all died in the war and the Kyūbi attack, leaving him all alone to shoulder their guilt and hatred. He had essentially become their _scapegoat_.

Once he made such thoughts fully comprehensive, he sat up in his bed and pondered for a moment, before pulling up the blinds. The afternoon sun was high in the sky, and its summer glow warmed his face. Naruto began to wonder how he could change his situation. He did not enjoy being ridiculed and hated, and sometimes, when he saw children leaving the playground holding their parents' hands, something throbbed within his chest.

The leaves of the trees in the hills had long since turned orange and red, before the answer came to Naruto from a rather unexpected source. On the morning of his sixth birthday, he woke up to find the room cold and with no breakfast on the table. His caretaker had always made him three meals a day, washed the dishes after him, done his laundry, and cleaned his small apartment once a week. She'd never had a kind word for him and in fact, had rarely spoke to him at all, but she had never made him starve before.

Blearily staring at the empty table as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, Naruto didn't notice the tall masked individual that suddenly appeared on the open window sill. And before he could do much else, the man had forcefully picked him up and jumped out the window. At first, like a wounded animal, he struggled in the strange man's grip, clawing at the man's chest. But he then realized that the man was wearing the porcelain animal mask and metal chest armor of an ANBU, and relaxed. As much as he was hated by the rest of the village, he knew that the ANBU were elite shinobi of the Hokage – they would never lay a hand on him without explicit orders. And he knew that no matter how hated he was, no matter how grudgingly considered...he was still a member of Konoha. So long as that was the case, they would never touch him.

Soon enough, he was dumped unceremoniously into the Hokage's office. Naruto didn't remember ever having been in here before, but he could read the characters 'Hokage' on the desk in the middle, which's top was overflowing with stacks of paper and scrolls.

The Hokage himself stood before him. His aged countenance and wizened form almost belied the strong, unwavering eyes that observed him from below the white hat. Naruto quivered and almost looked away, but unlike the villagers, the Hokage's gaze held no animosity or hatred. So he met the elder ninja's dark eyes with his own blue ones, and for a moment, he thought he might have seen a flicker of emotion within them. But then it was gone, and the revered God of Shinobi turned away.

Naruto learned several things that day. He learned that the Hokage had been his benefactor paying for his caretaker, and that now that he was six, she would no longer be coming by. He would receive a monthly stipend from the Hokage, but he would have to prepare his own meals and clean up after himself. And finally, he learned that he was to attend the Academy, starting immediately.

Running back to his apartment, Naruto was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even notice the glaring and the hissed insults that followed him. He had always admired the ninja and how they were so mystical and powerful, just like the heroes of his childhood folk tales. He had thought he had outgrown his bedtime stories, but now that they seemed to be becoming a reality, he felt a rising airy sensation in his chest that he didn't know what to call.

That evening, Naruto watched the sun set from his window. As he did so, he wondered if going to the Academy would truly change anything. If he was right, and his clan had done something truly heinous, he doubted the villagers would forgive him so easily – even if he did become a full-fledged ninja. His small fingers, rested on the window sill, clenched into his palms, leaving behind red marks.

In that case, Naruto decided, he would become a ninja that they couldn't ignore or despise. He would become so great, his achievements would blot out the shadow of his clan's sins. He would become the most revered and respected ninja of Konoha, and become Hokage.

Even if he couldn't own their bodies or their minds, he vowed, he would own their hearts.


	2. Loneliness

**Tale of the Setting Sun**

Chapter 2: "Loneliness"

* * *

The next morning, Naruto found himself scanning his appearance before the mirror. He wanted to look his very best. If he was going to become Hokage, he knew he should at least have the ability to make a good first impression on his teacher and his classmates. He felt grateful that his caretaker had at least done the laundry before she left; now, he was wearing his favorite basic orange shirt. He knew that if he was to become a ninja, wearing dark colors would be the best – but he felt that wearing something he felt comfortable in would add some confidence to his demeanor. To compensate however, he wore a grey hoodie with black edges over it, and black pants.

His hair on the other hand, was a completely different story – it was a spiky red mane that hung down to his neck. Rolling a lock of the bright hair between his fingers, Naruto wondered if he should trim it. He glanced out his window, and let go of the lock. He could see the Hokage monument from his apartment, and if the busts were accurate, the Second, Third, and Fourth had all had rather crazy spiky hair. Clearly, their hair hadn't impeded their rise to the top, and he figured that his wouldn't either. In fact, he thought the Fourth's hair even rather resembled his own.

Finally, his stomach grumbling – Naruto hadn't gotten around to buying groceries yet – he left his apartment and headed to the Academy, which he knew to be same place where the Hokage's office was.

Before he entered the big building, Naruto paused and looked up at the circular green and red sign that proudly hung in the niche above the doors. The character for 'shinobi' was emblazoned on it in bold black ink, and he knew enough characters to know that it was made up by the separate characters of 'blade' and 'heart.' It seemed appropriate considering the goal that he had in mind.

The classroom was large with a high ceiling, and there was a blackboard and a podium on the instructor's side. On the other side were rows of desks, stacked in an increasing, rising order like a staircase. When Naruto walked in, following his new instructor – a man with an old scar across his face who had introduced himself as Umino Iruka – a palpable ripple of surprise swept through the room. He could almost physically feel the noise level in the class sharply drop, as dozens of pairs of eyes turned to observe him. Naruto didn't meet any of their narrowed gazes, but stood stiffly in front of the blackboard with his back straight. Offhandedly, he noticed that the girl with pink hair from the playground was in his class.

"This is Naruto Uzumaki," said Iruka, motioning rather pointlessly towards the young boy besides him. "He's six years old, and he'll be joining our class from today onwards, so make him feel welcome." Immediately, some of the children began to whisper amongst themselves, but quieted down again as soon as they saw Naruto open his mouth to speak.

"I hope we can be friends," said Naruto, quirking the tips of his lips up into a smile. He'd never had much of a reason to make one before, but he had observed how smiles made people feel at ease. He thought he heard some snickers and maybe even a muttered 'tomato-head' but for the most part, the classroom only stared at him sullenly. Considering his introduction largely a success, Naruto found an empty seat next to a black-haired boy who idly rested his head on his hand.

It turned out that the class had been going over how to read and write several basic characters that he already knew, so for the first hour, Naruto had the unhindered liberty of observing his new instructor. Iruka had seemed courteous enough when he first introduced himself outside of the classroom, but the boy wondered what the chūnin truly thought of him. The man certainly seemed uncertain about him; in the last ten minutes alone, his eyes had flickered four times over to where the redhead was sitting, and he had stumbled over his words each time. Judging by the sheen of his face, the man was sweating slightly as well, and Naruto had learned from experience that people did so either when they were hot or when they were nervous.

From his brief personal interaction with the instructor, the redhead had already inferred that the man was usually a proficient teacher. Discreetly looking around, every time Iruka fumbled over a sentence, he saw looks of puzzlement reflected on the faces of his classmates, confirming the fact. He returned his gaze to the chūnin just as the man in question looked up at the redhead, and their eyes met for a split second. The man gave no visible signs of reacting, and looked away almost immediately (mistakenly writing the wrong character n the blackboard as he did so). But Naruto already knew – it was just the smallest glimmer, but he had seen that same look of fear and revulsion that everyone else in the village had whenever they saw him. He felt his spirits sinking a little, as he wondered if he would be kicked out of the Academy as well.

After the lesson on reading and writing, the class moved on to chakra, and suddenly, Naruto found himself out of his depth. Apparently, there was something called a chakra point, and a person had three hundred-and-sixty-one of them. There was also something called hand seals, and the twelve basic ones were named after an animal from the horoscope. But not knowing what chakra itself actually was, the redhead could barely follow the discussion, let alone participate. From the sounds of it, it sounded like magic, but he'd always thought magic was mere fantasy. So what else could it be?

An hour of torture later, the class was over, and the students were given a short lunch break. After dawdling at his desk as most of the other children filed out of the room, Naruto approached the instructor, who was flipping through a sheaf of papers on a clipboard.

"Iruka-sensei," said the redhead quietly, looking down at the ground with his hands tucked behind him. With such crucial information on the line, he did not in any way want to antagonize the man, and he thought that his best chance was to look as disarming as possible.

"Yes, Naruto?" asked Iruka, lifting his eyes up from the documents. His tone was casual, but Naruto thought he could detect a note of tension.

"Could you tell me what chakra is?" When the man didn't answer for a few seconds, instead giving him an odd look, Naruto hurriedly added, "The discussion was very interesting, and I wanted to join in – but, I'm still not sure what it is, and where it comes from."

Subtle flattery and genuine interest in a person's words, he'd found out, was another way one made a person feel at ease. To his relief, Naruto observed some of the tension leave the instructor's face, though he still looked perplexed.

"Well Naruto, chakra is a form of energy that all living things have. The energy is a mold of physical and spiritual, and goes around your body in a network. We ninjas can use this chakra to perform techniques." Iruka paused, before adding, "Do you know what a technique is?"

Naruto shook his head no.

"A technique is a skill made possibly by chakra, with effects like walking on water, exhaling fire, and creating illusions. There are all kinds of techniques, such as ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, and even the most basic one requires you to mold your chakra. Usually, techniques require a certain sequence of hand seals." To demonstrate, he put his two hands together and quickly made some signs. There was a burst of smoke, and suddenly, someone who looked exactly like Naruto was standing in front of him. The boy let out a small exclamation of amazement and stepped back. There was another burst of smoke, and Iruka was standing before him again. "That was the Transformation technique. It's one of the most basic ninjutsu techniques, and we'll be learning it when your class is a bit more advanced."

Eyes lighting up, Naruto put his hands together and mimicked the man's hand signs. To his disappointment, there was no burst of smoke.

Iruka looked bemusedly down at the redhead, who was glaring at his palms with a puzzled look on his face. He was a little surprised that the boy had managed to follow his hands when he had done them at a fairly quick speed, but figured he must have seen them before somewhere.

"Just doing the motions won't be enough, I'm afraid," said Iruka with an automatic smile. Naruto's eyes widened at the sight, and the smile slid off of his face like sap. "Well, off you go now."

Thanking the older man, Naruto left with his heart pounding. He couldn't remember anyone having ever smiled at him before. And unlike the smile he himself had given the class, this hadn't been an offering of goodwill – it had been the genuine article.

Clearly, the man held some of the ill bias that the rest of the village had for him – but he seemed easygoing by nature, and if that accidental smile meant anything, Naruto thought he could get him to open up to him. He felt rather pleased with himself, as he walked around the village looking for a place to eat (that wouldn't chase him out). So long as he didn't get on Iruka's bad side, he thought he would be able to learn everything he wanted about being a ninja, and he would be that much closer to becoming Hokage.

As Naruto passed by a small restaurant, a white-haired jōnin with a face mask stepped out from under its flap. As the flap dropped down, the most hauntingly delicious aroma he had ever smelled came wafting out, and he froze in place. There was a big paper lantern hanging outside, and it said "Ramen Ichiraku" in bold red characters on the flap.

Unable to help himself, he lifted the flap and stepped in. He saw several stools and behind the counter, a very stern-faced man in a white kimono and an apron. Though his stomach was grumbling, Naruto brashly looked the man straight in the eyes, but to his relief, the man didn't react to his face. Instead, he told Naruto to sit down and asked him what he wanted. Caught off guard, Naruto stammered out the first item on the menu that he could see – miso ramen. Five minutes later, the most majestic bowl of noodles he had ever seen in his short life was placed in front of him.

Naruto was almost done inhaling his bowl of ramen, when a chattering group of children from the Academy suddenly sat down on the stools next to him. Recognizing them as a particularly rambunctious bunch, he tried to hunch over his ramen, but his red mane immediately gave him away.

"Well, whatta you know! It's tomato-head!" said a boy with a band-aid on his face, jumping up from his seat. His friends jumped up as well with leers on their faces, and they shuffled over so that they were surrounding the redhead. He felt himself stiffen.

"My name is Naruto," he said quietly.

"What was that tomato-head?" the boy said loudly, cupping his ear as if he hadn't been able to hear him. When Naruto didn't respond, he dropped his hand and glanced over at his sniggering friends. "Nogi here says she heard you asking Iruka-sensei 'bout what chakra is."

"Yea, sensei couldn't believe it!" chortled a girl with pigtails. "He told us after you left that you didn't know nothing and that," she sneered, "we should help you out."

"Aww, does little baby need his diapers changed?" said the boy with a leer. He leaned over and swiped Naruto's bowl. "Does tomato-head want his mommy? Oh _wait._" He laughed coldly and lifted the bowl to his lips mockingly. "You don't _have one._" Wordlessly, Naruto watched the bully slurp up the remainder of his ramen. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the owner of the restaurant was preoccupied with another customer.

"It's not very nice to make fun of people about their parents," he finally said in a mild tone that belied the increasingly hot fire that burned in his belly.

"What would you know 'bout being nice? It's not like you ever had parents to teach you," scoffed a girl.

"My parents told me to stay away from you 'cos you're bad," added the boy with relish.

"I'm not bad!" gasped Naruto, involuntarily slipping into the childish overtones of his companions.

"You are too!"

"No I'm not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too! Damn tomato-head! No one wants you here!" With a look of childish anger contorting his features, the boy lifted his hand up with the bowl still in hand. Not comprehending, Naruto watched dumbly as the bowl flew through the air and hit him on the chest with a crash, spilling cold liquid all over his best clothes.

"HEY!" The owner had finally noticed what was going on, but the children had all ran away, howling vindictively with laughter.

Naruto stood frozen for a second, watching with wide eyes the oily liquid drip from the ends of his hair. There was a big black splotch now on his favorite orange shirt that he knew would never come out.

Regaining control of his body, he slowly bent over to pick up the bowl, which had thankfully not cracked. Placing it back on the counter, he hesitantly peeked up. The owner stared down at him impassively, and flinching, he apologized, before lowering his head back down again. Not noticing the man's pained expression, he turned around and walked as quickly as he could back to his apartment.

Once he was home, Naruto robotically began to pull out some of his more worn spare clothes from the closet. All he could think about was how he had to quickly change and return to the Academy before the lunch break was over, or else he would get in trouble on his first day. If he was to become a great Hokage, he couldn't get kicked out. So, it was only when he was zipping down his ruined hoodie that he noticed that his fingers were trembling. And then, as he wondered why they were doing that, he also realized that he had lost all strength in his legs. Letting out a small "oh!" he fell down on his knees in the dark room. Automatically hunching over on his hands, Naruto felt something warm and wet streak down the sides of his face and land with a plop on the floor.

In a detached sort of way, he realized with surprise that he was crying. He had observed before – from afar –people crying for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, people cried when something good happened to them. Usually, they laughed and smiled as they did so, and they became more pleasant to be around. People who were happy like that generally did not chase him away, so he liked it too.

Other times, people – particularly children – cried when they weren't getting their way. Once, he'd seen a girl about his age burst into tears when her mother refused to buy her a stick of candy, and observed how the mother had given in. When he asked his caretaker to buy him a stick of candy, she'd wordlessly stared at him coldly, as if looking at a particularly disgusting insect on the backside of her sandal. He'd never asked her for anything again after that.

But most of the time, people cried because they were in pain or because they were sad. When a boy or girl fell over in the playground and began to cry, their mother or father would frantically look up at the sound of their voice, and run over. When they saw that the child had only scraped a knee, they would laugh in relief and place a band-aid over their injury. Then the child would feel magically better and go back to playing with their friends.

As he idly wondered which emotion he was feeling, Naruto suddenly felt strange. There was a hazy sensation creeping up his body and taking over. Bewildered, he felt himself momentarily detach from the lifeline clarity of his intellect, and drift into a hurricane.

Against his will, he collapsed down completely with his face pressed against the ground. Someone was making a terrible moaning sound, and for several seconds, he listened in alarm as he looked for its source, before realizing that it was coming from himself. A mixture of snot and tears was streaming down his face, and he began to worry about how he couldn't go back to the Academy with a splotchy face when suddenly, he didn't care. He wasn't sure what this horrible heaviness in his chest was, but he didn't want to feel it anymore. And if crying would help him lessen it, he would do it. After all, no one was there to hear him.

If he wanted to be considered strong enough to be Hokage he knew he could never let anyone else see him crying, because then he would be weak – but right now, he was alone in this dark cold room.

_Just this once_, he thought, eyes squeezed shut and tears dripping from his nose. He clasped his hands together tightly, as if in prayer._ Just this once._

The cold and detached part of Naruto thought that he should be pleased to have this privacy. But he had never felt so alone before. He felt like he was the only person in the world.


	3. Dream and Determination

**Tale of the Setting Sun**

Chapter 3: "Dream and Determination"

* * *

The day Iruka decided to ask the Hokage to transfer Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha to a more advanced class, he didn't know what to feel. It had been only a little more than a year now since Naruto had joined the Academy, but the boy was already well ahead of the rest of his class (with the exception of Sasuke) in nearly all subjects. After asking him what chakra was on that first day, the boy had never asked another question in class again but his essays showed an in-depth understanding of chakra control that was well beyond their age. He also possessed what appeared to be incredibly immense chakra reserves, comparable to that of adults, and could easily perform higher-level techniques without signs of tiring.

When they'd begun target practice in the spring, the redhead had taken to shuriken and kunai like fish to water. He seemed to instinctively know how to release the shuriken at precisely the correct degree with just the right timing, and in an alarmingly short amount of time, his accuracy and skill had surpassed even that of the clan-born children. To Iruka's astonishment, the boy had somehow instinctively known how to channel some of his chakra into the shuriken and direct them to targets in his blind spots. It was inconceivable that just a year ago, he hadn't even known what chakra was.

His form in taijutsu was still a bit lacking, but the redhead more than made up for it with his innate creativity and his phenomenal observational skills. With every loss, he seemed to grow stronger and faster, as he incorporated his opponent's moves into his own. He somehow adjusted his entire style with every bout, almost like a machine that was being fed information. And somewhat surprisingly given his quiet nature, the boy was also rather stubborn; every time he was thrown on the ground, he got up silently and simply shifted again into his ready pose. His losses had dwindled gradually every day, and nowadays, it was rare for him to lose. The only other person in the class who still presented a real challenge for him was the youngest Uchiha, but if that boy was anything like his older brother, he would no doubt turn out to be another genius (the Uchiha clan seemed to churn them out like rabbits).

With all things considered, Iruka did strongly believe that Naruto and Sasuke would excel even in an older class. He thought that if they pushed themselves, they would be able to graduate the Academy by the time they were ten – probably even earlier. But that night, as he lay in his bed pondering over his decision, a slight twinge of guilt tugged at his conscience.

Was he going to ask the Hokage to transfer Naruto because he truly thought it would benefit the boy? Or did he still feel uncomfortable with the child who housed the beast that had killed his parents? He had actively tried not to let any bias color his opinion of his student, but it was difficult sometimes. The boy's shaggy red hair looked like the pelt of a fox, and with the whisker-like marks on his cheeks, he truly looked feral at times. Sometimes, when you looked at him from a certain angle, it wasn't hard to believe that he _was_ the Kyūbi. He knew that that was what some of the villagers thought – they didn't know that Naruto was only a victim, after all. They thought that Naruto was just the human form of the Kyūbi, and Iruka knew that the boy was not treated kindly as a result. Even people such as himself who knew the truth weren't able to say anything under pain of death. And over the years, the untold secrets and the pained silence of those who'd suffered the losses of their loved ones had festered into a great big scar called _Naruto_. Iruka felt ashamed of himself, as well as on behalf of his village; he wondered how the Fourth would have reacted if he knew how everyone treated his son.

As Iruka tossed and turned in his bed that night, Itachi Uchiha slaughtered his entire clan with the lone exception of his younger brother, painting the Uchiha compound in red. The entire village of Konoha was in an uproar the following day, and the Academy was temporarily closed down as all of the chūnin were enlisted in maintaining order. Most of the available jōnin and ANBU were sent out to capture the fugitive Uchiha, but all ultimately returned in bitter disappointment.

With Sasuke Uchiha taking an understandable leave of absence from the Academy, Iruka's request for Naruto Uzumaki to be placed into a more advanced class was quietly processed and accepted. Once the Academy reopened, he was bumped up into a class of children two years his senior.

* * *

Naruto did not know whether to be pleased with his class change or not. On the one hand, if he was being placed with older children, it meant that the instructor thought he was well above-average, and had acknowledged his abilities. On the other hand, he couldn't help but wonder if Iruka had simply wanted him out of his class. However, his new instructor – a chūnin named Mizuki who seemed rather wary of him – treated him fairly, and Naruto felt grateful that Iruka had at least placed him with someone who wouldn't try to hold him back.

As for his classmates, they didn't seem to know what to make of him. They were nine or ten years old, and to some extent, had grown out of the cruelty of their childhood. They were at the age when they began to think for themselves instead of blindly following what their parents told them to. But at the same time, they had grown up being indoctrinated by their parents to stay away from the redheaded boy. He wasn't an outsider, but he wasn't one of _them._

Well, that was fine with Naruto. His efforts at making friends with his original class had made little headway for the most part. As he grew stronger and learned how to defend himself, most of the ones who had bullied him started to fear him. He never responded to their taunts, keeping himself under control with an iron fist of self restraint. But whenever they had a bout during taijutsu class, they learned that his kicks and punches always hurt more if they had picked on him. There were a couple who seemed completely uninterested in him, such as the boy from the Nara clan, who preferred to spend his time looking up at clouds, and the boy from Uchiha, who seemed to have set his eyes on higher goals than Naruto. Then there were others who simply stayed away from him, and others who seemed to be reserving their opinions of him – such as the quiet boy from the Aburame clan. The girls of his class were at an age when they preferred the company of their own gender, traveling in gaggles and whispering amongst one another the secrets of the womanhood they were about to become a part of.

Now, the redhead was glad that he hadn't wasted any of his time forging relationships with his classmates. Otherwise, now that he was being moved up, he would have had to start all over. It was better off, he thought, to first become strong as a ninja and to earn respect, before he tried to make friends.

Because Naruto had two secrets that he'd never told anyone else. The first was that he felt two types of chakra running through his body. If his normal chakra was yellow, he'd say the second one was red in nature. He had never tried directly using the second chakra; he'd found out early on that so long as he focused on his yellow chakra, he could easily direct it to gather wherever he wanted. The red chakra was much wilder and much more stubborn, and sometimes disrupted his chakra, making his ninjutsu fail. After some deliberation and several headaches, he had put aside his red chakra, focusing instead on controlling his yellow chakra.

The second secret was that when he nudged his red chakra, a curious black seal appeared on his abdomen. It looked similar to the symbol on the shoulders of the ninja uniform, with squiggly lines coming out like the rays of a sun. They hadn't learned anything about sealing in the Academy, except that it was very advanced and only the best ninja could do it. The Fourth Hokage had been a sealing master, for one. Naruto wondered why there was a seal on his body, and what it was sealing. Was it the source of his second red chakra perhaps? But it didn't seem to affect him negatively, so he didn't dare ask someone about it. He didn't need to give anyone another reason to look at him hatefully.

And so, the months passed. Every morning, Naruto woke up early and, after his routine sets of pushups and pull-ups, as recommended by his instructor, he practiced building up chakra by walking up the walls of his apartment. Once he became adept at gathering just the right amount of chakra he needed, and could easily run around the room, he moved on to walking on water. He also began to spend his mornings meditating and concentrating on feeling the flow of his chakra running through his body. The redhead couldn't believe there was a time once when he didn't know what chakra was; it was the spirit of his very self circulating throughout his body.

In the afternoons, Naruto attended the Academy and learned about chakra and hand seals, mastering basic techniques such as the Body Replacement, Transformation and Clone techniques. He studied how to set traps, how to disguise his own presence, and how to eliminate as much sound as possible from his movements. He became skilled at making explosive tags and detonating them remotely with chakra, and could release himself from all basic genjutsu. He was unparalleled in all taijutsu classes with his fluid mobility and agility, and inexhaustible stamina, often knocking his opponents flat on their backs before they even saw him coming.

Naruto alternated his evenings between further sessions of taijutsu and target practice, sometimes breaking up the pattern by reading scrolls from the Academy's library about higher level ninjutsu techniques. Though some techniques were too advanced for him to learn on his own, he found that he had natural talent for others. When he discovered that a technique called the Kage Bunshin (_Shadow clone technique_) existed, which's usefulness far surpassed that of the far weaker version they learned in the Academy, he immediately set down all other scrolls, determined to master it. To his surprise, despite its B-rank status, he was able to successfully summon several shadow clones within a day.

Furthering his studies, he also began to read about chakra theory. He read about chakra affinity, and from a test with special chakra paper, learned that he had affinity for the wind element. From then on, following the rather cryptic diagrams provided in the scrolls, he began to experiment with molding his yellow chakra, observing how its properties changed depending on how he manipulated it. When the redhead first succeeded in changing the form of his chakra into being as sharp and thin as possible, and then released it, he found himself being blasted off of his feet as a strong gust of wind exploded in the area around him. Though it was exhausting, with further experimentation, Naruto was able to further manipulate the sharp chakra with a sequence of five hand seals, in order to give him some form of control over the wind. Exhilarated with his success in creating his first jutsu, he called it 'Fūton: Kyōfū (_Wind Release: Gale_).' He hadn't used it in front of anyone else yet, but when he was training by himself, he combined this with his shuriken so that he was attacked on all sides by his own weapons. He found that, in the absence of a sparring partner, it helped him hone his own mobility and dodging skills.

Naruto was further encouraged in his experimenting when one day, he discovered what looked like a forgotten scroll in the more obscure part of the library. It was a scroll that explored the origins of chakra, and which enlightened him to the nearly endless possibilities before him. It mentioned the existence of other alternate dimensions, and said that certain ninja had even managed to enter these other dimensions through the use of seals. These other dimensions had different laws of physics from their own natural world, and the scroll said that some scholars thought chakra had even originated from these other dimensions, but had somehow seeped into their own. However, the scroll stopped there and never mentioned any way to actually reach the dimension, or any of the seals. So while Naruto hit a dead end with no other scrolls to guide him, his mind began to be opened to the many ways he could apply ninjutsu and his chakra.

However, despite all his interest and enthusiasm, sometimes throughout his training and his experimentation with chakra, Naruto felt like he'd hit a wall that he couldn't pass. At these times, he sometimes secretly wished that his clan were still alive. Many of the other children in his class had parents, siblings, or entire families who were ninja, and who could answer their questions or guide them. Naruto had no one – he couldn't very well ask his instructor to give him special attention. But as soon as such thoughts of self-pity came welling up, he made sure to quash them. He looked at how other children from the Orphanage didn't have anyone but themselves to depend on – at least, he reminded himself, he had the patronage of the Hokage. He didn't have to worry about getting money to buy food or pay rent, and could just focus his attentions on becoming a ninja. So what if he was parentless and friendless? So what if everyone else in the village hated him? Naruto trained himself to ignore the glares and insults, which only seemed to be intensifying as he grew older. He hadn't cried once after that one time with the ramen, and he didn't plan to ever again – at least, not until he became Hokage. So, the redhead distanced himself both physically and mentally from everyone around him, throwing himself into his training.

And in this manner, three years slowly passed. When Naruto was ten, he graduated from the Academy at the top of his class and was put into Team 4 with two other genins, a girl named Mayu Kamizuki and a boy named Rai Hagane. Mayu, a small forgettable girl with brown pig-tails, was timid and seemed entirely too afraid of the redhead to talk in his presence. Instead, she hid behind their other teammate Rai, a tan black-haired boy whose handsome face was somewhat marred by a scar that ran strikingly across his left cheek. Neither seemed altogether pleased about being in the same group as the village pariah. Their jōnin teacher was the renowned white-haired shinobi 'Copy Ninja Kakashi.'

* * *

*His Wind Release: Gale is based off of Wind Release: Devastation technique, a C-rank offensive ninjutsu (hand seals: Tiger - Ox - Dog - Rabbit - Snake) used by Orochimaru and Gaara in the manga.

**A/N: **Sorry about inserting in OCs, but I can't find any genin in the Naruto Wikipedia who're two to four years older than him. Everyone else in the manga seems to be either Naruto's age (12-13 in the beginning of canon), younger than him (mainly Konohamaru's group), or 23 and older (Kakashi's generation). I considered Kabuto as a possibility, but I decided to leave his character to canon.

**Edit 7/13/13: **Added a substantial amount to his learning, and also mentioned him learning Kage Bunshin so people stop bothering me about how he learned it.


	4. Distant Memories

**Tale of the Setting Sun**

Chapter 4: "Distant Memories"

* * *

Leaning against the railing of the roof garden, Kakashi Hatake looked down in silence at his new genin team. Their facial expressions and the way they had positioned themselves was very telling. The girl Mayu Kamizuki was biting her lower lip and looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but there. Kakashi wondered for a moment how she had passed the Academy test: she had gotten one of the lowest scores in ninjutsu, and the de facto lowest in taijutsu. But the forgettable looking girl apparently had a bit of a flair for genjutsu, and had even managed to conceal her presence from the chūnin instructor, which was impressive indeed. At the moment, however, she clung onto the arm of the hard-faced boy sprawled on the ground next to her – Rai Hagane. When Kakashi let his gaze linger on the long scar across his face, the boy scowled fiercely. The white-haired shinobi looked away; Kotetsu's younger brother would be a handful indeed.

Finally, he let his thoughts rest on the third boy, Naruto Uzumaki. He was the one who was two years younger than the other two and yet, had passed with the highest total score on the exam. His new hitai-ate gleamed on his forehead, and unlike the other two who still wore their somewhat brightly-colored outfits from the Academy, he was sporting a black-lined mesh T-shirt under a tracksuit and black pants. Sitting noticeably apart from the other two, the redhead's blank face was rather more difficult to read, but Kakashi could see the determination ingrained in the boy's eyes. He wondered what exactly the redhead wanted to prove so much.

Seeing Naruto's face so up close like this, the jōnin couldn't help but think of his own sensei. The boy had his mother's hair, but everything else was his father's. Under strict orders from the Third Hokage, Kakashi had not approached Naruto until now, but he had seen from afar how much the boy was suffering at the hands of the ignorant villagers. The Third had said that this would make him strong, just as how Minato had wanted. But Kakashi couldn't help but think that his old sensei would have been furious at him for letting his son grow up without knowing how much he had been loved.

Finally, Kakashi clapped his hands together to get his new genins' attention.

"I am your new jōnin instructor, Kakashi Hatake," he said, folding his arms against his chest. "So that I can know you better, let's go around in a circle with your names. You can also tell me your likes, dislikes, hobbies, and your dreams."

The three genins stared silently back at him, and Kakashi had to suppress a sigh.

"How about you go first?" he said, gesturing towards Rai, who scowled again but grudgingly acquiesced.

"The name's Rai Hagane," the boy muttered, shooting a glare at the redhead sitting across from him. "I like weapons. I dislike liars. My hobby is target practice. And my goal is to avenge the deaths of my parents."

_A handful indeed,_ Kakashi thought to himself.

"Now the girl," he ordered. Her eyes shot up in surprise, and like the boy sitting next to her, she nervously glanced at Naruto.

"M-my name is Mayu K-kamizuki. I like birds, a-and I dislike fighting. M-my hobby is watching the sky...and my dream is to work with orphans one day and better their lives."

As she said this, the jōnin had followed her body language carefully; she had played with her pigtails twice, bitten her nails three times, and looked down at her sandals at least twice as often. But as she talked about her dream, she had stopped fidgeting, and her voice hadn't wavered once. Perhaps Izumo's younger sister had more of a backbone than he'd initially given her credit for.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," followed up the redhead, without any prompting. "I like to read, and I dislike bullies. My hobby is expermenting and practicing with ninjutsu. My dream is for everyone in the village to acknowledge me and become a great Hokage."

Kakashi hid a smile from behind his face mask; maybe the Third had been right after all. It looked like the Fourth's son had grown up to be quite interesting.

* * *

The next day, the newly formed genin team waited at the training field for their sensei. He had told them to arrive early, but it looked like he was going to be late. Grumbling about being hungry, Rai sprawled across the ground. Her face pinched with hunger, Mayu sat down next to him.

As the minutes ticked by and the sun inched up the sky, Naruto remained standing where he was for a while. Finally, as his stomach began to make rumbling sounds, he pulled off his backpack and settled down on the ground in as comfortable a position as he could. Closing his eyes and focusing on the stream of chakra running throughout his body, the redhead began to do what he did best – think.

Why had the three of them been explicitly told to come this early for training? Why hadn't Kakashi come yet, leaving the three of them alone together? What kind of test could it be, that would determine whether they were to continue training as genins, or return to the Academy as failures? Surely nobody expected them to be able to defeat a jōnin yet? And most importantly...why had they been told to skip breakfast?

Ironically, the sharp hunger that wracked his belly brought clarity to his mind. The redhead's eyes snapped open.

"We need a plan," said Naruto, looking at his teammates, who seemed surprised at his addressing them.

"Wha?" said Rai suspiciously.

"Kakashi-sensei's test will probably involve us having to team up to beat him," explained Naruto. "That's why he's late – he knew we didn't discuss anything yesterday, so he's giving us time now to work out a plan. In fact, he's probably watching us from somewhere right now to see how we spend this time."

"I don't sense him anywhere," said the black-haired boy doubtfully, but nevertheless, he tensed up.

"He's a jōnin," said Naruto simply. He turned to look at Mayu, ignoring how she flinched from under his gaze. "Mayu, you're good at genjutsu right? And Rai, you're a long-range weapons specialist, while I'm the best at taijutsu of us here. I think we've got a pretty good chance at beating Kakashi-sensei if we team up."

Rai and Mayu looked at each other, before looking back at their third teammate and giving him an uneasy nod. If anything else, they would acknowledge the skills of the boy who had always soundly defeated them in class. So, putting aside their differences, the three genin began to work out the details of a plan, creating various backup scenarios.

Meanwhile, the white-haired shinobi listened closely from the tree branch that he'd been sitting on for the past hour.

By the time Kakashi finally arrived, Naruto felt reasonably pleased with the plan they had worked out. Getting the other two to cooperate with him had also been much easier than he had expected, making him wonder if he should have put more effort in reaching out to the others in his class. But whatever the case, the redhead decided that he would have to reevaluate his opinions of his now teammates; they might not be the weights that he had feared would slow him down.

However, when their sensei explained that they would have to take two bells from him before noon, Naruto's worst fear was realized. It solved the mystery of why they'd been told to skip breakfast, but it now presented a problem. Had the redhead been wrong about the reason why they'd been given so much time together? If one of the three was already automatically slated to fail, how could they possibly work together as a team? Just a single glance at how Rai and Mayu were eyeing him told him that they would undoubtedly betray him if things came to a head.

Nevertheless, when the jōnin started the clock, Naruto motioned to the other two to go along with plan B. Seeing them nod in agreement, he leaped backwards and, directing chakra towards his feet, ran up a tree to gain some higher ground. Once he was high enough that the white-haired shinobi was barely the size of his thumb from where he stood, he stopped.

The redhead ground his teeth in a rare show of frustration. _Think, Naruto_, he told himself, forcing himself to calm down. There had to be a reason behind this farce of a test. He did not think that the jōnin was simply a sadist and took pleasure in failing genins. The man was deeper than that. So what could Kakashi-sensei be trying to show them? Was this test supposed to demonstrate self-sacrifice – was that it? Was one of them meant to sacrifice himself for the success of their mission?

Shaking his head to clear it, Naruto checked for Kakashi's location. To his surprise, he was still standing where they'd left him, with an inscrutable expression on his face. It didn't look like a clone, although Naruto wouldn't have put it above the jōnin to have used a more advanced technique.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flock of bluebirds come flapping out of a tree about a hundred yards away. That was the signal.

Immediately, the redhead flung several shuriken and kunai down at the jōnin's still figure. With grim eyes, he watched them strike their target – and with a burst of white smoke, Kakashi disappeared, revealing a tree log in his place.

Naruto realized that he had just given his position away to Kakashi, who had no doubt been waiting for him to make such a move. Hopping down the branches to get back on the ground, he began to run.

Before Naruto had gotten too far however, he sensed the presence of his sensei actively pursuing him. Without making any visible signs of recognition, he began to slow down, as if growing weary. Sensing Kakashi get ahead of him and then wheel around, the redhead dropped to the ground and swung out several shuriken at the spot he sensed him to be in. A moment later, the presence flickered out, and he knew that it must've been another Body Replacement technique or a clone. His pulse quickening as he saw something white flicker right next to him, Naruto flipped out of the way. Just as he landed, there was a cloud of dust, and when it cleared, the white-haired shinobi was standing behind the genin.

* * *

"Not bad," said Kakashi. A beat passed where the redhead remained motionless, and the jōnin realized that something was wrong. Then with a burst of smoke, Naruto disappeared, and a log clattered on the ground. There was a hissing sound, and recognizing it in a heartbeat as the indicator of an exploding tag, Kakashi immediately leaped out of the way.

As he spun into the air, a redheaded figure bulleted out of the nearby bushes and barreled into the jōnin. Raising his arm just in time to block the kick, Kakashi reached out with his free hand to close off the boy's movements. But even as his hand settled around Naruto's ankle, the boy twisted around in midair, swinging the length of his other leg at Kakashi's neck. Forced to let go in order to avoid having his windpipe crushed, the jōnin watched as Naruto landed nimbly on his hands before flipping back upright.

Without a moment's pause, the redhead threw another exploding tag at him. As Kakashi leaped aside again, he saw that the genin had began to quickly make some seals. Before Kakashi could see what technique he was forming, the tag had combusted, momentarily distracting him. The next second, a sharp gust of wind burst into existence besides him, picking up a cloud of leaves and dust to create a miniature storm in the clearing.

Interesting...so Naruto had wind affinity just like his father. But Kakashi had to smile at the naivety of the redhead's plan. If his aim had been to blind the jōnin, unluckily for Naruto, he didn't need to rely on his vision to be able to sense where he was. And as expected, he sensed the redhead running directly towards him. Bending his legs, Kakashi prepared to leap over Naruto – when suddenly, he sensed upwards of twenty kunai shooting straight towards him from above and behind.

_Shoot,_ thought the jōnin, as he was forced to roll to the side._ I forgot about the other two!_

On his feet once more, Kakashi dodged another leg sweep from Naruto, scanning the area for Rai as he did so. Judging from how the kunai had been thrown, the black-haired boy was probably hiding in one of the trees and had waited for the opening Naruto had created. And if Rai was around, Mayu was sure to be close by. Marveling at how far this year's batch of genins were pushing him, he focused and searched for her chakra.

After all, Mayu may have been able to conceal herself from a chūnin...but there was a world of difference between jōnin and chūnin.

Just as it seemed that Naruto's taijutsu and Rai's onslaught of projectile weaponry had the jōnin cornered, Kakashi sensed a small disturbance in the ground below. His eyes narrowed. A second later, the female member of their team came bursting out of the earth and with a look of rare triumph, she swiped at the two bells that hung tantalizingly from his waistband.

So they had still gone ahead with the plan, the jōnin realized. He had expected them to abandon all signs of teamwork once they were told only two of them could pass. But they had stuck to the plan. Naruto would first engage Kakashi, and Rai would provide further distraction. Mayu, as their most accomplished at hiding her presence, would creep up on him and take the two bells. It was a simple plan, but effective, and if he had been just an ordinary person, it would undoubtedly have worked on him.

It was child's play for Kakashi to replace himself with Naruto instead at the last moment. If the jōnin had been any less pushed by the pursuit, he would have enjoyed the look of utter shock that flashed across Mayu's face as she instead crashed straight into Naruto.

Two down, one to go. Kakashi began to look for Rai as he waited for Mayu and Naruto to disentangle themselves...when suddenly, the redhead disappeared in a puff of smoke.

In the split second that it took for Kakashi to register what had happened, a flash of red came shooting out of the hole that Mayu had made. Watching in astonishment at the hand that reached out for the bells, the jōnin immediately leaped away, realizing his mistake. At some point, Naruto must have replaced himself with a shadow clone while the true Naruto had hidden underground, hiding his presence behind the girl's.

A bell jangled.

Kakashi felt a single drop of sweat roll down his neck, as he and the redhead stared impassively at each other. A single bell dangled from between Naruto's fingers. Judging from the look of shock still on Mayu's face, she had not been privy to this part of the redhead's plans either. Kakashi had to wonder whether it had been a spur of the moment thing, or whether he had thought of it all from the very beginning.

Whichever the case however, it didn't make much of a difference. He had underestimated the genin – it was as simple as that. As similar as Naruto looked to the Fourth, it had been all too easy to simply dismiss him as the cute baby-faced son of the legend. He certainly hadn't expected him to know a jōnin-level technique such as the Shadow Clone technique, or thought it possible for a genin to have devised such a plan. But now, he knew better – and he would never so completely underestimate the son of Minato again.

_No,_ Kakashi corrected to himself grimly. He would definitely not be underestimating _Naruto Uzumaki_ again.

"Very well," said the white-haired shinobi, shaking his head ruefully. The remaining bell jingled from his pocket. "Only Naruto got a bell...but you all pass for your display of teamwork. You are the first team of mine to ever work together even after being told that only two of you will pass. Good job, everyone." A faint smile appeared on Naruto's face, while Mayu gave a big sigh of relief and fell on her knees. A black streak came zooming excitedly out of the trees; Rai's usual scowl was, for once, gone.

Kakashi had somewhat mixed feelings about how things had turned out. Originally, he had fully expected them to work separately, and completely fail at capturing a bell. Then, he would have tested them, as he had with all previous genin teams, by checking to see whether they would choose to ignore his orders and take care of each other. This was the first time that he would pass a team for actually succeeding in their mission, and he didn't know whether to feel proud or disappointed.

After instructing everyone on team 4 – now team Kakashi, he supposed – to rest up in order to start duties the following day, Kakashi prepared to make his report to the Hokage. But before leaving the training area, he stopped by the memorial where his best friend's name was inscribed. He lowered his head, and thought of his own sensei and team. It all seemed like a millennia ago, and now, he was the only one left. The jōnin wondered if he would be able to pass on what he had learned from them to his own genin team. He sincerely prayed that it would not come for them at as high a cost as it had for himself.

* * *

**A/N: **I want to make clear that Naruto is in no way close to being as strong as Kakashi. Kakashi simply did not take him seriously enough. Thanks for the reviews.

**Edit 7/13/13: **Changed some of the answers in the beginning self-intro section. Nothing too big.


	5. Eyes Like Cold Steel

**Tale of the Setting Sun**

Chapter 5: "Eyes Like Cold Steel"

* * *

Knowing that the road to becoming Hokage would be a long one, Naruto had always had faith in his own patience. But as he chased down the Fire Lord's wife's pet kitten for the umpteenth time that afternoon, he found himself entertaining thoughts of premeditated murder.

"It's little wonder it's always running away," muttered Rai with narrowed eyes, and the redhead couldn't agree more. With varying looks of pity on their faces, they watched the pig of a woman press the squirming kitten against her folds of chin fat in a show of fervent adoration. As the woman pulled out several crisp bills of ryō from her handbag, the kitten wriggled out of her grasp again and began to race for freedom towards the exit. Noting the look of extreme terror on its small face, it was only half-heartedly that Naruto grabbed the animal and returned it to its owner's claws.

It had been several months since the team 4 had passed Kakashi's test, and in the days following, they had carried out a long series of D-rank missions. Most of these missions involved mundane odd-jobs that posed little to no risk to their lives, and they were getting restless.

The time had not all entirely gone to waste, however. Naruto had come to learn a bit more about his teammates and team leader, and had been surprised to find out that, for one thing, they were all orphans. Mayu and Rai – particularly Mayu – did not seem to altogether trust, or even like the redhead, but they couldn't very well ignore him. Gradually, they had reluctantly given away some details about their lives, and it turned out that, like Naruto, they had never known their parents. Their parents had been killed by enemy ninja when they were both young, and the two had been raised together by their older chūnin brothers. The brown-haired girl did not seem too interested in her parents, but Rai was passionate about his own to the point of obsession. He seemed set on getting revenge for his parents' deaths. Naruto thought it more than likely that in the unlikely chance these enemy ninja happened to still be alive, they wouldn't even remember an insignificant skirmish that had occurred before the redhead himself had been born. But seeing that this desire for vengeance, no matter how naïve, was what drove his teammate, he kept this opinion to himself.

Their team leader Kakashi, on the other hand, was much more tight-lipped about his familial circumstances. All Naruto had been able to get out of him was that his parents had died long ago during the war. He did, however, also learn that when Kakashi had been a genin, his team leader had been the Fourth Hokage himself. A little awed at learning that he was going to be one of the legacies of such a legend, the redhead guiltily allowed himself to indulge in some pork ramen that evening.

All in all, Naruto was pleased with their jōnin sensei. The man understood the significance of chakra manipulation, and when Naruto demonstrated his own experimentations with his wind affinity, was all too willing to teach him how to refine his control. He even understood immediately what Naruto was talking about when he asked about alternate dimensions, and informed him of the existence of space-time ninjutsu – which, he found too convoluted for usage at his present state, but which he filed away for the future. Furthermore, Kakashi was quick to correct any flaws or inefficiencies in their forms and never seemed to lack for experience or knowledge in anything. After the trial with the bells, the redhead had never again managed to get the upper hand against their sensei. Though it was frustrating at times seeing the huge difference in their skills, it was still gratifying to know that he was learning under one of the very best jōnin Konoha had to offer. Because best of all, Kakashi genuinely appeared to hold no bias against him. The man's gaze was piercing and unapologetic, but Naruto had never detected even a slight glimmer of resentment or revulsion. In fact, secretly, he even thought that he heard a note of pride in his sensei's voice when they talked about the possible uses of manipulating chakra and the implications of nature chakra.

Once, when Naruto felt sufficiently comfortable with Kakashi, he'd asked him if he knew his parents. There had been a long silence, in which the redhead had worried if he'd mistaken the limits of their boundaries and had accidentally stepped over the line. But then, Kakashi had replied that his parents had been ninja and that Naruto strongly resembled one of them. He refused to tell him anymore despite further calculated prodding, but this alleviated some of the genin's hunger for knowledge for the time being. Not only did this confirm the redhead's earlier childhood suspicions, but it also added another layer of awe to his already elevated opinion of the jōnin. Here was a man who had actually interacted not only with the Fourth Hokage, but with his own parents as well. To Naruto, who had never known his parents, Kakashi became proof that they had been people who had once trod on the very streets that he now walked on. They had also once had dreams and ambitions like him, trained for hours at target practice like him, suffered like him...and had probably smiled a great deal more than he had.

Despite his lingering resentment for the ones who had left him behind to suffer as a scapegoat, he couldn't help but retain some child-like wonder for the two figures who should have, by all rights, loved him. All of this, he pinned now on the first and only adult figure to ever treat him like a real person.

Gradually, as Team Kakashi grew more experienced, they began to be given C-rank missions. C-rank missions were missions anticipated to have some combat involved with the possibility of injury, and the three genin eagerly snapped up every opportunity they got. Together, the three of them worked well, being a well-balanced team. Mayu was their scout, being easily the best at stealth and having a certain affinity with birds that allowed her to transmit messages over distances. Her strength in genjutsu was also promising, and Naruto could think of a variety of uses for it, such as being able to detain the target before he or Kakashi arrived. Rai on the other hand specialized at handling weapons, and was able to provide a steady stream of artillery on all their missions. Rai provided backup support for Naruto, who was the main offense member of their team. Naruto, finding that he preferred close combat, had begun receiving kenjutsu instruction from Kakashi, and had taken to strapping a tantō across his back. First charging the blade with his wind chakra, he found that he had talent in the swift and precise method of taking out their targets.

Their first two C-rank missions involved taking down dangerous wild animals that had been spotted around the lands of Konoha. Their third mission, however, was their first ever bodyguard duty. The mission's objective was to escort the caravan of a wealthy silk merchant and his family to the village of Yugakure in the Land of Hot Water. Understandably, the three genin were excited – none of them had ever left their village before, and this mission would take them outside into foreign territories for a minimum of a week.

Mayu and Rai flanked the caravan, with Naruto at its lead and Kakashi watching over from the back. Though the three genin were initially enthusiastic about their duties, the energy that had been bubbling within them at the start of their trip had all but dissipated by the fourth day. Having reached the last leg of their journey with little incident, the three were now dirty, homesick, and bored. The fact that Kakashi seemed as put-together as he had at the beginning did not help matters.

It was a matter of unfortunate timing that it was their sensei's turn to sleep when the rogue bandits attacked the caravan. It was the middle of the day, and everything seemed normal; Rai was squabbling with one of the merchant's children, while Mayu watched them with a vague smile on her face. From his place at the front, Naruto was listlessly still scanning the distance in search of anything that looked out of place. He hadn't slept in over a day, and he was really looking forward to switching positions with Kakashi. When he noticed a slight disturbance in the distance, he paused and concentrated his attention on it. As he did so, the redhead didn't notice the cloaked men who crept up behind the caravan. Finally dismissing the disturbance as a false alarm (possibly a rabbit) he had only just returned his attention to the immediate vicinity, when a wagon burst into flames.

Immediately, Naruto converged on the burning wagon while Mayu and Rai rose up protectively around their patron's family. Kakashi joined him a second later looking completely alert, and together, they used water techniques to douse the flames.

Even as the last flame sizzled out however, two more wagons had burst into flames. Sensing several shuriken spinning directly towards him, Kakashi flipped out of the way. As he did so, Naruto deflected several kunai away from the main wagon. He missed one that had been sent later than the rest, and the kunai embedded itself into the glass of the window, cracking it. From behind it, Naruto could see the shivering pale face of the merchant, a corpulent old man with thinning hair. Suddenly, there was a flash of black as a cloaked man leaped at the merchant, his eyes gleaming with the intent of murder. Before Naruto could react, the jōnin besides him had disappeared. There was a cracking sound as Kakashi twisted the man's head in midair, killing him. The body landed on the ground with a thump, and without a second glance, the jōnin jumped up to the top of the wagon where two more figures in black holding daggers waited for him.

"Naruto, the others are getting away!" warned Kakashi. Tearing his gaze away from where his sensei was now fighting single-handedly with the two bandits, Naruto saw two figures swathed in ragged cloaks leaping away into the woods with what looked like scrolls in their hands. Cursing himself for his momentary lapse in attention, the redhead immediately leapt into the air: "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (_Shadow Clone Technique_)!" Making two more shadow clones of himself, Naruto and his clones followed the remaining two bandits into the woods besides the road.

They were evidently trained, and had some experience in dealing with other ninja. Naruto's first clone was taken out by the shorter man within seconds, though judging by the way the man reacted when the clone disappeared, he had never dealt with shadow clones before. However, they were no match for the redhead, and he had caught up to one of them within a minute. Ordering his remaining clone to follow the other bandit, he removing the tantō from his back and charged it with wind chakra. The man's eyes widened as he flew towards him with the tantō in hand, but before he could cry out in alarm, Naruto slid the blade across the front of his neck.

A thin stream of red spurted out, spraying his face with blood. With a gurgle, the man fell to the ground.

The redhead wiped the tantō on his pants, before returning it to his back. Picking up the scroll that the man had been carrying, he looked around for the remaining bandit. Spotting the tell-tale rags getting rapidly farther away, Naruto jumped up the sides of a tree. Feeding extra chakra down to his feet, his leaps between each tree grew stronger and longer, and with his shadow clone slowing the bandit down, he soon closed the distance. Naruto could see the man from up close now; like the others, he was not wearing any identifying hitai-ate. The bandit's age was inscrutable, though the face was scruffy with stubble and worn down. The man could see the redhead too now, and judging from the shocked look on his face, was not used to dealing with opponents his age.

"You're just a child!" said the bandit, just as Naruto's shadow clone reached him. The man pulled out a kunai from a pouch and waved it threateningly at him. The clone easily kicked it out of his hand, and as it spiraled into the air, the real Naruto grabbed it. Knocking the man off balance with a leg sweep, Naruto pushed the bigger man down onto his knees with his foot, and pressed the kunai against his carotid artery.

"Why did you attack the caravan?" asked the genin coldly. When the man didn't respond, he added pressure to the blade. A thin line of red appeared on the bandit's neck, and Naruto could hear the man's heart begin to beat faster.

"Let me go," pleaded the man, his voice raw with desperation.

"Tell me."

"I have a son waiting for me. He's six. We just needed money. Please."

Naruto paused. It didn't seem like the man was lying, but his mission came first. And the mission details did not include sparing a bandit who would undoubtedly attack other innocent merchants in the future.

With a gurgle identical to the first man, the bandit before him fell to the ground. Red blood came bubbling out of the sides of his mouth as he attempted to say something.

"Hir..." said the bandit, before the light of life finally faded from his eyes. He twitched once and then he was still.

Dropping the now bloody kunai to the ground, Naruto picked up the remaining scrolls and tucked them besides his tantō on his back. Straightening, he directed his gaze at several bushes about twenty yards away. There was someone hiding there; the presence was faint, but obvious. He was about to send his shadow clone to investigate, but it proved unnecessary as a young boy in worn clothes came bursting out the next second.

"Dad!" said the child, dropping to his knees besides the fallen bandit. Picking up his father's limp hand and holding it to his face, the boy began to sob heartrendingly. Naruto stood still, at a loss for words. A second later, the boy stood up on trembling legs and with tears still streaming down his dirty face, looked towards where the redhead and his clone was standing. "I'm going to _kill_ you!" he screamed, his face contorted with anguish. "One day, I will!"

Naruto could hear the conviction from within the tremulous voice. He didn't respond, but he dismissed his clone with a cloud of smoke.

There was a flicker of movement, and Kakashi appeared besides him. Taking in the scene in an instant, the jōnin clapped a hand comfortingly on Naruto's shoulder. Together, they left behind the child besides the body on the ground, hearing a pain-filled howl of despair in their wake. Without talking, they returned to the caravan.

All the fires had been put out, and the bodies of the two bandits that Kakashi had dealt with had been arranged neatly on the side of the road for their companions to later claim. No one in the merchant's family had been more than superficially injured and with Naruto returning the scrolls that the two escapees had made off with, their finances were also more or less protected. The redhead numbly accepted the gushing praises of the fat man, all too aware of the still wet bloodstains on his face and clothes. When Rai gave him a grudging nod of acknowledgment, Naruto felt an inexplicable stab of guilt. Mayu, however, shot him a look of fear before turning away to comfort some of the younger children. This, he felt that he deserved.

Naruto had never killed anyone before, and now, he'd taken the lives of two men in the same amount of time it'd have taken him to eat a meal. It had been so easy too: just a single slash across their necks, and all of their dreams, aspirations, hopes had ceased to matter. He found it ironic that Rai praised him for this; if he'd known that Naruto had done essentially the exact same to another child as some other enemy ninja had done to Rai ten years ago, would he still have given him that nod?

When Kakashi told Naruto that he could rest for the rest of the journey to Yugakure while the jōnin took over his position, he accepted without comment. Clambering into the wagon, he closed his eyes and immediately felt sleep envelope his weary body.

_The road to becoming Hokage is going to be long indeed_, Naruto thought to himself as he drifted off.

But his dreams were restless that day.

* * *

**Edit 7/13/13:** Added some significant details about his training.


	6. The Ones To Be Protected

**Tale of the Setting Sun**

Chapter 6: "The Ones To Be Protected"

* * *

Yugakure was a peaceful and prosperous village in the Land of Hot Water. The village was tucked away high up in the shrub-covered mountains, connected to the ground by multiple carved pathways that spiraled down the side of the cliff rock. The country received its name from their famous hot springs, which were sourced by the many small rivers that furrowed through the land. These rivers all eventually cascaded down the side of the valley as thin waterfalls before joining a vast river.

The village was apparently very popular as a tourist spot, and as Naruto and his team walked wearily past the entrance gates, they could see quite a number of families peaceably coming in with them. Within the village itself, there were a large variety of souvenir stalls, selling festival masks, local specialties, and fans among other things. The center of attraction however seemed to be the big wooden archway with the words 'Hot Springs' at the center of the village, which the majority of the people were headed towards.

The sky was bleached with orange and purple as the sun set, and Kakashi decided that they would stay the night before leaving for Konoha at dawn. Hearing of their decision and overcome with gratitude for a job well done, the silk merchant gifted them with tickets for an overnight stay at a famous local inn with its very own hot spring.

And so that evening, Mayu headed off by herself to the women's bath while Naruto and Rai hunkered down in the heated pool in the men's bath. Resting a soaked towel on his head, the redhead closed his eyes, letting his tired muscles soak in the hot water. With his eyes closed, he idly began to pick up the jumbled chatter of multiple surrounding conversations; the way they washed over him had a very relaxing effect.

"Oi, Naruto!"

Naruto opened a single eye to see Rai looking at him from the opposite end of the pool. Mirroring Naruto with a folded towel on his head, he had a mischievous look on his scarred face. Much more than Mayu, and even more so since the incident with the bandits, Naruto had noticed that the other boy was talking to him with increasing frequency. He wondered if this gradual turnabout in attitude was a result of the fact that Rai had not had any parents to warn him from infancy to stay away from the redhead. But then, Mayu who was also an orphan had certainly not warmed up to him; on the contrary, she'd grown even jumpier around Naruto, which he wouldn't have believed possible until he saw it happen. Whatever the case with Rai, it was a little bewildering and altogether new for Naruto. On the one hand, he didn't know how he felt about voluntarily engaging in conversation with such a brash individual, but since he certainly couldn't afford to be picky, he didn't rebuff the other genin.

"What is it?"

"Think Kakashi-sensei'll take off his mask in the bath?" said Rai, waggling his eyebrows. Naruto pondered this for a moment. It was true that he had also never seen their jōnin sensei's face in its entirety, though he had never before thought too deeply on it.

"I don't see why he wouldn't," said Naruto thoughtfully. "I don't think he has a medical condition that requires him to always have a facemask on."

"I bet he's got a weird mole or something," said Rai, smirking. "Or something else," he added with a more sober look, touching with his hand the knotted scar that ran across his cheek.

"Who's got a mole?" said Kakashi, stepping into the bath area. He was standing where the white steam from the baths was thickest, and they could only make out the outlines of his body. As the man stepped closer to where the two genin were resting, Rai stood up impatiently with a splash, straining to see his exposed face. Naruto remained sitting, but against his will, he also began to find curiosity bubbling within him.

Just as the white-haired jōnin was about to come into view, there was a soft hissing sound in the bath as new hot water was pumped in. As a sigh of appreciation rose up among the men, a cloud of white steam drifted up, concealing everything around them. Soon, Naruto couldn't even see the black-haired boy right in front of him, though he could hear the other genin gnash his teeth in frustration.

"This is nice, isn't it?" he heard Kakashi comment congenially. "Hm, this steam's making it hard to see anything." There was a splashing sound. "Oh, there goes my towel. Guess I'll have to get a new one..."

There was another splashing sound, and then the sound of a wet foot slapping on rock as Kakashi climbed out of the bath.

_This is it!_ thought Naruto, his eyes widening. Making the appropriate hand seals quickly, he then slashed his hand in Kakashi's direction. A gust of wind swept through the bath, rapidly clearing the steam clouds. There was a whistling sound, and then something that sounded like barrels crashing on rocks and breaking. This was soon followed by the sounds of high-pitched screaming from the women's side of the hot spring. The redhead wondered briefly if he'd made the wind a bit too strong.

"Nice one, Naruto!" said Rai.

The steam had all but cleared from the bath now, and Naruto now saw that there were at least twenty other people standing around in towels. They were all looking around, blinking in confusion.

"Where's Kakashi-sensei?" demanded Naruto.

"Ah, thanks for that Naruto," he heard Kakashi-sensei say from behind him. "I found my towel." Naruto and Rai whipped around, to see Kakashi back in the hot spring pool. He was still wearing his hitai-ate on his forehead, and had wrapped his newly rediscovered towel around the bottom half of his face.

"..."

For the next ten minutes, the jōnin puzzled over why his two genin were ignoring him.

* * *

After the three had finished soaking in the hot spring, they changed into cotton yukata provided by the inn (Kakashi somehow managing to put his facemask back on as well) before rejoining Mayu at the outdoor garden. Several families were by the pond, admiring the colorful fish that swam in its depths. It was dark, so the garden was lit with several paper lanterns that hung from lines strung all around the walls.

Attracted to different aspects of the garden, the team soon split up. Kakashi settled down on the bamboo porch with a book, while Rai joined several other boys who were admiring some ornamental weaponry on display within glass cases. Mayu seemed to have met a few girls her age while by herself in the women's bath, and was now giggling with her newfound friends beneath the bobbing lights.

Finding himself alone, Naruto wandered around the garden for several minutes before making his way over to the pond. The families had moved on, and there was now only one other man who was by himself at the pond's edge. Together, they stood in silence for several minutes, watching the fish dart through the shadowy water.

"Nice chakra control earlier, kid," the man said suddenly. "Though you packed a lil' too much punch in it." Startled, Naruto gave him a cursory glance; the stranger had short, slicked-back silver hair, but he was even younger than Kakashi- sensei. He was fit and his arms were muscled, indicating extensive training. The man – or was he a teenager? – was not wearing a yukata like everyone else, but rather simple nondescript black shirt and pants. Around his neck was a hitai-ate that Naruto didn't recognize. It had three diagonal lines, and the redhead wondered if the Land of Hot Water also had a ninja village hidden away somewhere.

"What village are you from?" asked Naruto, ignoring the compliment.

"Yugakure," replied the man with a careless shrug of his shoulders. The redhead narrowed his eyes.

"You mean this place used to be a hidden village?" he said doubtfully. He couldn't imagine a sleepy tourist village such as this one being the headquarters of a group of highly skilled assassins. But the man standing before him was undoubtedly a shinobi, and from what he could sense, a very skilled one at that.

"It used to be a proper shinobi village, before these fatass merchants came in and turned this place into the laughingstock it is now," said the man coldly, folding his arms across his chest. "Now, the village's become just like this pond...and the people, simple ornamental fish." Naruto didn't respond. The man had yet to make any threatening moves, but the redhead felt there was something off about the man. It wasn't just the bitterness that laced the man's words. The combination of the cold steely glint in his violet eyes and the just barely self-contained tremor in the man's muscles sent off every alarm in Naruto's mind.

There was a splash as a pair of children in yukata ran to the pond's edge. They cheerfully examined the koi fish, pointing out and laughing at specific ones that caught their eye.

"Look at that fat one!" said the little girl, her fishtail braid dipping below the water's surface. She looked a year or two younger than Naruto, who observed them silently. "Do you think mom'll let me take it home, Taki?" Her brother, standing beside her in a bright blue yukata, swiped at the fish in question several times before giving up.

"It's just a stupid fish," said the chubby boy huffily. "It'll die in a day anyways, like all your other ones." Jumping out of the pond, he waddled away. Calling out for him to wait, the girl shot a second glance backwards at the fish before struggling up and following.

Naruto felt the sudden explosion of killing intent a moment before the foreign ninja disappeared.

Dashing forward, he grabbed the sibling pair underneath each arm and jumped. Flying through the air with the two children struggling in his arms, the ground where they had been standing on just a moment earlier blasted apart into chunks of broken earth. When the dust had cleared, it revealed a giant steel katana in the hands of the silver-haired man. Looking up with a smile as he met the redhead's eyes, the man yanked the katana out of the ground. Jumping back with a vindictive giggle, he slashed at a passing fat woman and then disappeared again. The woman stared down in disbelief as bright red blood suddenly came spurting out of her thigh, and her leg collapsed in on itself.

The explosion had stunned everyone into silence, but it was only after her single pained scream pierced through the garden, that pandemonium set in.

"Naruto, what's going on?!" shouted Rai, racing over. Naruto could barely hear him over the screaming, and if they weren't careful, they could be trampled. The bobbing lights above only added to the chaos.

"There's a strange man on the loose," said Naruto, just as Mayu – looking terrified – reached them, with Kakashi on her heels. "He's the one with silver-hair and the katana. He's strong, sensei."

"Alright, team Kakashi," said the jōnin, looking around grimly. "I'll take care of him. You three focus on evacuating the citizens."

Nodding at each other, they jumped into motion. Rai ran over to the locked entrance gateway, which a crowd of panicked people were now pummeling their fists against. Looking around frantically, he spotted the weapons on display that he had been looking at earlier. Immediately shattering the glass with his fist, he pulled out a three-bladed scythe. Dragging it over to the gate, he smashed the doors open. Without thanking him, the terrified crowd began to pour out.

Meanwhile, Mayu and Naruto had begun to help the various injured persons that were lying scattered across the ground. As the redhead helped up a middle-aged man bleeding from a deep slash across his stomach, the man groaned.

"Hidan..." Naruto looked at him; the man was looking around at the bedlam with a horrified face. "Please, stop him..." The man slumped against the genin as he fell unconscious. When Naruto staggered under the heavy weight, Mayu rushed over to help him hold the body up. Together, they propped the man upright against the wall of one of the buildings. Straightening up, Naruto quickly looked for Kakashi with shrewd eyes. The redhead had never seen the jōnin look so serious before, and even the horror of their situation couldn't distract him from the opportunity this presented. Now, Naruto would be able to see him truly in action. He quickly spotted the white-haired shinobi standing in a clearing...and shivered.

Even dressed in a yukata as he was, Kakashi's coldly furious face would have set the most battle-hardened veterans running in the opposite direction. As it was, however, the silver-haired man – Hidan? – only laughed maniacally as he begun to swing the heavy katana around. Naruto couldn't help but feel grudgingly impressed by the sheer raw strength and power the man was displaying.

"Don't just stare at me," said Hidan, tightening his grip on the handle of his blade. "Show me what you've got!"

Without responding, Kakashi disappeared in a flicker of white, and faster than Naruto had ever seen him move, kicked Hidan directly in the chest. Caught off guard, Hidan flew backwards toward where the two genin were watching. Leaping out of the way, they watched the man collide into a tree instead, which collapsed from behind him upon impact. A deafening crackling sound reminiscent of a thousand birds filled the area, and a bright blue ball of spinning chakra quickly formed between Kakashi's hands. As Hidan angrily brushed aside fragments of wood from his chest, the jōnin shot towards them, leaving behind a small path of destruction. Just before Kakashi struck however, Hidan let out a mocking laugh as he reached out for something with his free hand.

"The boy!" cried out Mayu, but the redhead had already begun to move. Pushing himself to run faster than he had ever done before, he leaped into the air. The struggling boy in the blue yukata stared with terrified eyes at the incoming jōnin as he hung from Hidan's hands like a meat shield. Grabbing the neck of the boy's yukata with his hands and tearing him away, Naruto spun through the air. The crackling ball of lightning chakra passed by mere inches from his face. Hidan snarled in frustration and leaped backwards; Kakashi followed.

Landing on the ground, Naruto set the struggling boy on the ground. Mayu rushed to the boy's side to check for injuries, but he immediately pushed her away. He looked up at the two genin with only fear in his eyes.

"Get away from me! You monsters!" he screamed, his small body shaking like a leaf in the wind.

"We're here to help you," said Mayu gently, holding her hands up to show she wasn't holding anything.

"No! You killed Nami!" bellowed the boy, staggering backwards in his desire to get away. Naruto remembered the girl with the fishtail braid the boy had been playing with earlier. "Don't kill me too!"

Naruto stopped in his tracks as he remembered the two bandits he had killed the day before. His clothes back in the inn were being washed, but it would take several more washes before the bloodstains completely faded. He suddenly wondered if the boy he had left behind there in the woods was going to die as well. Was he as frightened of death as this shivering boy in a torn yukata before him?

"I won't allow you to die," said Naruto, reaching out with a hand to the boy. "Trust me." The boy stared at the redhead with wide eyes, his mouth falling open a little. Mayu watched the two silently with an unreadable look on her face.

"I..." said the boy hesitantly. He looked up at Naruto searchingly, and he must have found sincerity in the redhead's expression, because he stopped trembling.

Behind them, Hidan screamed in pain and in fury, and the terrible shrieking sound of shattering metal followed. Naruto saw, as if in slow motion, a jagged shard of steel whistle through the air as it headed straight for the boy who now reached for his hand.


	7. Companions

**Tale of the Setting Sun**

Chapter 7: "Companions"

* * *

Kakashi had just been nodding off to sleep when his mental warning bells suddenly went off. Immediately alert again, he hadn't had to look long to find the man behind the disturbance. He didn't know who this man was, but the jōnin knew that people like him, with such little regard for others' lives, were one of the most dangerous opponents to have around. And the least forgivable.

"Don't just stare at me," said the strange shinobi, swinging his katana carelessly. "Show me what you've got!"

Kakashi obliged. Sending chakra into his feet, he propelled himself like a bullet towards the man. His opponent's violet eyes widened in surprise as his foot connected squarely with his chest. Letting out a grunt of pain, the man flew backwards and careened through a row of gangly trees.

The jōnin raised his hitai-ate, revealing the three tomoe of the sharingan in his left eye, and lowered his hand: "Raikiri (_Lightning Cutter_)!"

As he channeled his lightning chakra towards his hand, the deafening sound of crackling chakra filled the garden, and a focused ball of swirling blue materialized. The silver-haired shinobi was still dazed from impact, and Kakashi saw with his sharingan that he would not have enough time to move out of the way. The instant his Raikiri was ready, the jōnin lowered his head and shot towards the stirring man, tearing up the earth behind him with the sheer aftershock.

However, just before he reached the man, there was a flicker of movement he hadn't anticipated. Kakashi, to his shock, sensed a much smaller and weaker chakra suddenly being thrust between him and his opponent. His hand was already moving towards the man's heart however, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to stop even if he had to go through the child.

A surge of roiling yellow chakra – Naruto – was already moving towards them, and Kakashi, with all the strength of his will, managed to inch his crackling chakra slightly upwards. The redhead tore the boy out of the man's grasp, and to his relief, evaded his hand. However, the brief instant it had cost him gave the other man enough time to recover and leap backwards. Kakashi's hand instead slammed into the ground; the earth exploded, throwing up a huge wave of dirt. Nevertheless, taking advantage of the wave, the jōnin followed under its cover and aimed a quick kick at the man.

"Whew, that was close!" said the man, blocking with his katana, and then swinging it at Kakashi. Slipping under the blade, Kakashi attempted to sweep the man off balance, but he nimbly leaped over the jōnin and slashed downwards. Though evading the sharp edge, the side of the katana crashed into the white-haired ninja. He skidded backwards, the heels of his feet creating furrows in the earth. The man raised his katana once more and flipped into the air, prepared to finish off the jōnin. However, having read his movements ahead of time with the sharingan, Kakashi rapidly channeled his chakra into his hand once more. As the man dropped down on him, unable to dodge, the jōnin plunged the shrieking lightning towards the silver-haired man.

It could only be a testimony to the man's skill that he managed to get his katana up in midair, but it was no use. Kakashi's Raikiri pierced the blade, shattering it into dozens of deadly steel splinters that were sent flying through the air, and then kept going through the man's chest.

The man let out a pained, guttural scream. Thick globs of red blood came gushing out of his chest. Throwing himself back, he landed heavily on his feet, panting. As he stood there, hunched over, he dropped the handle of the broken katana on the ground with a clatter. Looking around wildly for a moment, the man disappeared, and flecks of blood flew through the air in his wake.

Kakashi blinked in surprise; he had missed his heart, but he had still severely injured him. The man shouldn't have been able to move, let alone move at such high speeds. Looking around for the man's violet chakra with his sharingan, he spotted it near the exit gate. With a sinking heart, he saw nearby another chakra that he knew well.

"Hell, this hurts..." The man spat out thick blood, and grinned weakly. He squeezed the throat of an unconscious black-haired boy – Rai – and then nudged something on the ground with his foot. "Nice weapon you got here. Real nice. Mind if I borrow it?" Without waiting for a response, he kicked a red-bladed scythe into the air and grabbed it with his free hand. With a hateful look towards the jōnin, the man threw the genin into the air, and then swung down with his new weapon. The curved blades made a sick whistling sound as they pierced the air.

Kakashi leaped into the air, and grabbed the limp body, spinning to avoid the blades. As he did so, he saw the man race out through the gate, leaving behind a ghostly, malicious laugh. Then he was gone.

It was over.

The jōnin lowered his hitai-ate back over his sharingan. Setting Rai down on the ground, he checked the genin's vitals and let out a sigh of relief. Looking around, he saw that most of the bodies lying on the ground had only superficial injuries; the biggest damage had been done to the garden itself. His eyes widened as he found his two other genin.

"Naruto!" said Kakashi, running over. "Mayu! What happened?"

Looking terrified, Mayu was trying to staunch a profusely bleeding wound on Naruto's bare chest. The redhead was unconscious on the ground, the tips of his fingers still twitching. His yukata, which had been partially opened to reveal his chest, was torn and ragged. A long jagged shard of metal, covered in sticky blood, was on the ground besides them.

Quickly putting the pieces together, Kakashi gently pushed the shocked girl aside. She obliged willingly, standing up. She put a comforting arm around a young, trembling boy Kakashi didn't recognize. Gathering his chakra together, the jōnin prepared to use what little medical ninjutsu he knew to try and at least stabilize the redhead – and then stopped.

_Impossible_, thought Kakashi. Disbelievingly, he wiped away some of the blood that had pooled on the boy's chest, but saw that it was true. The deep wound was already healing; even as he was watching, the skin was beginning to knit back together. Amazed, the jōnin blinked, as if doing so would somehow halt the healing. It didn't. He realized then that the sealed Kyūbi must have somehow accelerated Naruto's healing rate – perhaps by pumping out its chakra to save the boy.

"Sensei?" whispered Mayu, her voice taut with fear.

"He'll be fine, it was just a shallow cut," lied the white-haired shinobi.

"Shallow...?" repeated the girl, her eyes widening. Kakashi wordlessly bent over, and picked the redhead's surprisingly light body up. There were shouts at the gate, and several medics came racing in. Catching one of the medics' attention, he directed them towards Rai, who was just beginning to feebly stir. When the jōnin turned back to wave for Mayu to follow him, he saw the look on her face and stopped.

"Mayu...?"

"I know he's the Kyūbi, sensei. I already know everything," she said.

* * *

When Naruto came to, everything was hazy and out-of-focus, and there was a sharp, throbbing pain in the right side of his chest. He was alone in a dark room, which was furnished only by what looked like a wardrobe on the other side. Looking down, he saw bandages covering his chest, and he was wearing light cotton pants that he didn't remember putting on. For a second, the redhead couldn't figure out what he was doing there – before the memory of what happened came rushing back.

When the piece of the metal blade came spinning at the boy in the blue yukata, Naruto hadn't thought – he'd simply just _moved_. The only thought in his mind right then was how much he wanted to – how much he _needed _to – save the boy. He'd pushed the child aside, and that was the last thing he could remember before waking up in the room.

Naruto wondered briefly if he had died and this was some awful version of the afterlife, but quickly dismissed the thought. He didn't think his body would hurt this badly if he were dead.

Just then, he heard footsteps outside the room, and then soft voices. Naruto tensed – wincing as he did so – before relaxing as he recognized their voices. It was Kakashi-sensei and Mayu. They were talking too quietly for him to hear, but it seemed like they were discussing something. A minute later, they must have come to a decision for he heard Kakashi-sensei's heavier footsteps begin to walk away. There was a pause, and then the door slid open. It was Mayu.

The redhead quickly closed his eyes, and feigned sleep. He didn't want to scare her away. He heard Mayu silently pad over to where he was lying down, and kneel. There was a soft thunk as she set down what sounded like a small table – his dinner, perhaps. Naruto thought she would get up and leave right away, given how much she seemed to fear him. But for some reason, she sat there quietly for a long time.

Finally, just as Naruto was about to fall into sleep from having feigned it for so long, he heard the sound of rustling fabric. He felt a warm pair of hands wrap around his own, and gently squeeze. Mayu whispered something into the darkness. Then, after another minute, she got up and quietly left the room, sliding the door closed behind her. As soon as her footsteps faded away, the redhead opened his eyes. He stared at his hand for a long time, and wondered what her whispered words had meant.

"_I forgive you."_

* * *

The next day, Naruto was feeling much better, and when the medic removed his bandages, saw that he was almost completely healed. When he saw how there was barely a scratch left on his chest, he inadvertently let out a sound of disbelief. Judging from how painful it had felt, the genin had thought the cut had been much deeper. He supposed that the shock and chaos of the moment had skewed his judgment, and the redhead felt a little silly for having delayed their return trip for so long over nothing. But just before they left the village the following day to begin going back to Konoha, the young boy he had saved came up to him.

"Thank you," said the boy – Taki, he had said was his name, looking up at Naruto. He had changed out of his blue yukata into black mourning robes. His face was downcast and his eyes were red – he was still reeling from the shock of losing his sister – but he was much calmer now. "Thank you," he repeated, and a single tear came leaking out of his eye. It slid down his round cheek. Naruto nodded, and did what he had seen other people do while trying to comfort those who were grieving – he patted the younger boy's head. It was his first time doing that, so he felt a little awkward as he did it. For some reason, this seemed to make Taki even more upset, and the little boy's shoulders began to violently shake as tears silently streamed down his face. By the time they finally left through the gates of the village however, the tears had dried, and Taki waved goodbye to Naruto, sniffling. The redhead waved back.

As they began to walk back to Konoha, Rai demanded to see Naruto's wound. When the redhead lifted up his shirt to reveal his mostly-healed chest, he let out a snort of relief and incredulity, before slapping him hard on the back. Kakashi-sensei seemed relieved but mostly unsurprised, adding further confirmation to Naruto's conjecture that the wound had been superficial. Mayu didn't say anything to Naruto for most of the trip back to Konoha, but she seemed much less jumpy around him. At one point, she even asked the redhead to pass her the jug of water, causing everyone on the team to stare at her.

So, without major incident and only a few days behind schedule, team 4 finally returned home.

Despite everything that had happened, not much changed in Konoha. Naruto was still the village pariah. If he entered a grocery store without using a henge, he still got chased out. If he strolled normally through the streets of the marketplace, people began to group together in clumps as they noticed his red hair and whisker marks. If children got too close to him, their parents would drag them away, scolding them.

But things were not exactly the same as before. Kakashi-sensei had begun to regularly drop by his apartment, even on days when they didn't have a mission. Sometimes, they would pick up where they had left off in previous discussions of chakra and dimensional ninjutsu. Other times, the jōnin would take him to the training field and teach him some new kenjutsu or ninjutsu moves. After Naruto kept needling him about the lightning-release technique he had used on Hidan, he even promised to teach the redhead how to master a second nature affinity.

It wasn't just his team leader. Occasionally, Rai would bang loudly on his door, demanding to spar with him. The black-haired boy couldn't get over the fact that Hidan had knocked him unconscious so quickly, and was determined to get better. And in return for some taijutsu tips from the redhead, Rai would help Naruto during his own workout sessions by throwing shuriken and kunai at him from above, eliminating the need for a certain wind-release ninjutsu he'd created before (Rai did so with glee).

Even Mayu sometimes joined in, though she never looked for Naruto by herself. She was always with either Rai or Kakashi-sensei – but she had begun to talk to the redhead more and more with increasing bravado. Just recently, the normally timid girl had berated Naruto for his apparently less-than-satisfactory intake of vitamins. He had been so stunned that that very evening, he had gone out and bought a whole basket of apples.

Naruto wondered if this had something to do with the night back when he was healing, and she had whispered those words to her. Thinking back on what she had said, he had tried to figure out if he had ever wronged the girl, but couldn't think of anything. Eventually giving up, Naruto decided to just be grateful that she seemed to have gotten over her fear of him.

Nowadays as he trained with his team, the redhead felt lighter in body and in mind than he had ever felt before. Out in the training field, nobody called him 'tomato-head' or glared at him hatefully. He was called 'Naruto,' and his teammates looked at him with increasing trust. And after a long hard day's worth of training, they sometimes all went to Ramen Ichiraku for bowls of Konoha's finest ramen. The first time they went, Naruto had only stared in awe as Rai and Mayu squabbled over a piece of pork in one of their bowls.

"You said I could have it!" said the pig-tailed girl with an uncharacteristically ferocious glint in her eyes.

"That was _before _I realized it was the last one!" said Rai, holding it out of the shorter girl's reach with his chopsticks held high over his head. Then, making sure she could see, he popped the rather sad-looking strip of meat into his mouth. With a cry of fury, Mayu threw her chopsticks, like shuriken, at him. Skillfully, Rai batted aside the chopsticks with his own – but then froze, as the ricocheting sticks of wood knocked over Kakashi-sensei's bowl. They looked on in horror as it crashed into the ground, its noodle contents pouring out over the ground.

Taking one look at the jōnin's face, Rai jumped out of his seat and begged for forgiveness.

"Why does this always happen when you're around?" the owner asked Naruto, the edges of his mouth twitching. The redhead apologized profusely for the second time, and promised that he would keep his teammates under control.

But from then on, Naruto found himself even joining in the squabbles with his teammates, fighting to claim the best piece for himself. And sometimes, in the midst of a heated chopstick battle with Rai, the redhead found himself inadvertently smiling so much that his face muscles had begun to hurt from overuse. He wondered if this soreness was what being happy felt like.

And so, the months and seasons passed. Naruto's 11th birthday came and went with little fanfare, though he did receive little gifts from his teammates and leader; Mayu even baked him a birthday cake. He didn't tell them, but they were the first presents he had ever received, and he made sure to take good care of them. He treasured in particular Kakashi-sensei's gift of a new tantō, and polished it fondly after every use.

Naruto was also pleased with the progress that his team was making. Despite the increasingly petty nature of their fights outside of the training fields, there was now a new focus in their training that hadn't been there before. The three continued to work with Kakashi separately on developing their own fighting styles, but ironically, their teamwork was improving in leaps and bounds. Because now that all three genin were communicating with one another as they trained, they were truly coming together as a team. Their skills complemented one another, and now that they had set their minds to it, they were beginning to work seamlessly together. At their last training session, even Kakashi-sensei, with a proud look, told them that they were one of the most promising genin teams he had ever seen.

Then, the jōnin told them that the Chūnin exams would be taking place soon in Sunagakure, the hidden village in the Land of Wind.

Hearing this, the redhead looked at his teammates, and they nodded back at him. He looked back at their sensei, determination coloring his eyes.

Team Kakashi was going to be there, and if Naruto had his way, they would all be passing.

* * *

**Edit 7/13/13:** Added some details of their training. I am purposely not giving too much away about their individual fighting styles; rest assured, they have more up their sleeves than they did several chapters ago. They will be showcased in the Chunin exams.


	8. Sand Ripples in the Wind

**Tale of the Setting Sun**

Chapter 8: "Sand Ripples in the Wind"

* * *

Naruto had never seen so much open space in one place before – or such a uniformity in color. As far as the eye could see, fields of golden sand stretched into the distance. The horizon was not straight, but humped with faraway dunes, and the intense, constant heat from the sun caused refractions in the air.

Sunagakure (_Hidden Sand_) was not, in the strictest sense of the word, _hidden_. Neither was Konohagakure (_Hidden Leaf_), for that matter – the huge overhanging mountain with the Hokage's faces carved as sculptures into the cliff's face was a dead giveaway, after all. But just like how Konoha was isolated by dense forests and mountains, Sunagakure's location was secured by the sheer extremity of its geographical surroundings. They had had to endure endless sandstorms and scale treacherous rocky cliffs for several days to reach the village. If any ordinary person or ignorant ninja had attempted the journey, they would surely have fallen long before the curiously shaped clay buildings came into view.

When Naruto and his team finally arrived at the gates of the village, they were directed towards an outdoors desert space, encircled by a barbed fence. Inside were dozens of huge pieces of rock that jutted out from the sandy ground. As soon as the gate to the lot screeched open, he felt at least several dozen pairs of eyes immediately turn to glare at them. Naruto had never seen such a large gathering of foreign ninja together in one place. Just judging from the hitai-ate of the nearest genin, he could tell there were at least four other villages here, including Amegakure (_Hidden Rain_), Kusagakure (_Hidden Grass_), Takigakure (_Hidden Waterfall_), and of course Sunagakure (_Hidden Sand_). Naruto shifted; the tension in the air was tangible.

"Ick, this place is disgusting," he overheard a genin from Takigakure complaining. "I've got mud all over my sandals."

"Let's hurry up and pass this stupid exam so we can go back home," her teammate grumbled.

"Confident, aren't they?" muttered Rai, from besides him. He, like the other two, were wearing thick cloth cloaks to protect them from the sun. He looked musingly around. "I wonder who the others from Konoha will be? I heard from my brother that some rookies are actually taking the exam this year."

"T-they must be really talented then," said Mayu, her eyes widening comically from under her cloak's hood. Her eyes darted around nervously. "I know I definitely wouldn't have been ready for it when we graduated. I don't know if I'm ready now, actually..."

"C'mon, you'll be fine," said Rai firmly. "You have me and Naruto backing you up." Mayu gulped, but nodded.

It was too early to say for sure, but Naruto could already tell that the exam was not going to be a pushover; the other villages would have sent their best genin teams, and competition was going to be fierce. The question was, what kind of trials there would be. Different villages hosted the exam every time, and the tests were always different. But he had known this from the very beginning, and they had trained with this in mind. So long as Mayu didn't freeze up – as she unfortunately had a tendency of doing – Naruto felt reasonably confident that his team would be strong contenders. They would be able to weather whatever the test threw their way. Probably.

"Nervous?" asked an unfamiliar voice from behind them. Naruto turned around. The approaching boy was wearing the hitai-ate of Konoha, but Naruto had never seen him around before. He looked several years older than them, with long grey hair tied back in a ponytail and a pair of circular glasses perched on his nose. "You're from Konoha too, aren't you?"

"Well...yeah," said Rai, tapping his own hitai-ate meaningfully.

"I'm Kabuto," he said. "This is your first time taking the exam, isn't it? Is it your first time in Sunagakure too?"

"Yes..." said Mayu. "Is it obvious?"

"Yep!" said Kabuto with a small smile. "You remind me of how I used to be."

"Is this your second time taking the exam, then?" asked Naruto.

"Nope...this is my fourth," admitted Kabuto. "This exam is held twice a year so this is my second year. It's my second time here in Suna as well."

Naruto couldn't detect a lie from the boy's tone of voice or his body language, so he mentally crossed him off his list of potential competition. He doubted anyone truly competent would fail the chūnin exam twice, let alone three times in a row.

A glint of gleaming metal caught his eye, and turning slightly, Naruto saw the familiar leaf hitai-ate again on another boy. He was pale with long black hair, and had the unmistakable clear eyes of the Hyūga clan. He seemed calm, though his fidgeting teammates looked a bit more nervous. Naruto eyed him carefully; the Hyūga clan was one of the strongest in Konoha. Unlike Kabuto, who was currently jabbering away to Rai, he'd probably prove to be a bigger challenge.

"They must be one of the rookies from the class after us," commented Mayu, following his gaze. "I don't recognize them."

"Yeah, they are," said Rai, perking up and turning away from Kabuto. "The girl's Tenten." He pointed directly at a girl with dark Chinese-style buns. "Her dad's a weapons specialist; he used to train us together when we were young."

But before they could go over to talk to them, several clouds of swirling sand suddenly appeared at the entrance, to reveal a group of Suna chūnin and jōnin. Naruto gave them their full attention, quickly taking note of their standard Suna attire. At their head was what appeared to be their leader. He was very tall, towering over much of the other Suna ninja, and had two red markings on the side of his face. Half his face was covered by a turban-like head gear with a sheet hanging down, and the remaining half was contorted into a hard glare.

"Thank you all for waiting," began the man, looking around at them sternly. "My name is Baki, and I will be your examiner for the Chūnin Selection Exam's first test. You will now all be assigned a team number, in order of your arrival here." There was a murmur of uncomfortable assent. The chūnin examiners began to walk around, giving out plates with numbers on it. Kabuto returned to his team, and Naruto and his team waited patiently for theirs, as they had been the second to last to arrive. Finally, when the chūnin arrived at their number, they received the number 79. Right after the Amegakure team following theirs received their number, Baki gathered their attention once more. "If you will look around you, you will notice the slabs of rock that have been placed in the field. Pick one, and gather around it with your team."

After a moment's pause to process the information, Naruto and his team walked over to the nearest rock. The others surrounding them all hurried to do the same. Each rock was about six feet wide, with another six feet radius separating the rock from the nearest surrounding rocks, making space rather limited between each team. Squinting his eyes against the sun, Naruto craned his neck backwards to look up at the rock. It was easily over ten feet tall.

"The field has been divided into twenty sections, with four rocks of equal height in each, and a team surrounding each rock. Your objective is to protect your rock and keep it above ground level. There are five ways to fail this test. One, if your rock reaches ground level, your team automatically fails. Two, if, by the end of the time limit of one hour, your rock is at a lower height than any other rock in your section, your team will fail. Three, if you physically touch any of your opponents or their rocks, your team will fail. Four, if your whole team is deemed unable to proceed with the test, you will fail. And five, if you kill any of your opponents, you will automatically fail."

"What? So how do you pass?" hissed Rai.

"Basically, we have to protect our rock from the other teams." said Naruto, "and only one team out of every four, at the most, is going to pass. We'll have to attack the other team's rocks using jutsu or projectiles so that they're at a lower height than ours." He looked at the teams of their adjacent three rocks, and saw grimly that they too were sizing him up. One team was from Kusa, and the other two were from Suna. The deck was stacked against them; the teams from Suna were going to be operating in their natural environment. They probably knew everything there was to know about sand and rocks, and would be using this knowledge to their full advantage.

Furthermore, it looked like this first test was going to be entirely a physical challenge, which would be problematic considering their team's strengths. Naruto looked up at the mammoth rocks before them, and frowned. Rai's artillery would do little against the tough rocks, and Mayu's genjutsu would have no effect at all. His wind chakra was sharp, but he hadn't tried cutting through rock before. Their best bet would probably be to take out the opposing genin.

Suddenly remembering something, Naruto knelt and picked up some of the sand. He rubbed it between his fingers, and while most of it fell to the ground, some of it stuck to his skin – it was slightly moist.

"So? What's the plan?" said Rai impatiently. He and Mayu looked at Naruto expectantly. Naruto glanced at the enemy genin; they didn't appear to be listening, but...

"We'll go with plan E," said Naruto, talking quickly. Baki, the jōnin, was opening his mouth. "Mayu, take the Kusa. Rai, take the closer Suna team."

"Begin!"

Immediately, there was a flurry of action and sounds of clanging filled the air. As Naruto quickly formed the necessary seals with his hands, he saw that the Suna genin were focusing their attentions on attacking the rocks. The genin from Kusa, like his team, were already attacking their enemy genin directly. As a stream of shuriken embedded themselves in their unprotected rock, pieces of rock shattered and crumbled down. Ignoring the attack, Naruto exhaled a small but powerful gale of wind from his mouth: "Fūton: Kyōfū (_Wind Release: Gale_)!"

Whipping through the surrounding rocks, it careened towards the Suna team farthest from them. They jumped behind their rock, easily avoiding it. The wind blasted harmlessly against the rock, which wobbled, but otherwise remained stoutly standing. Naruto smiled.

Meanwhile, Mayu had lowered her hood, and unclipped her hairclips, letting her hair fall around her shoulders. Her hands blurred into action, and as she stoked them to life with her chakra, the blue bird-shaped clips began to twitch and then ruffle their feathers, swelling to twice their size. Stretching their wings, they took to the air.

Suddenly, there was a shout of pain as Rai managed to hit one of the Suna genin in both legs with shuriken. As the genin fell to the ground, several chūnin rapidly appeared by his side with a stretcher. As the incapacitated genin was taken away, in vengeance, the remaining two turned their attentions on team Kakashi. One of them was a puppet-user, and she directed her scorpion-like puppet towards Rai. It scuttled rapidly towards him, its stinger gleaming with the promise of slow-working poison. Letting out a stream of swears, Rai pulled out another scroll of artillery.

Trusting his teammates to do their part, Naruto sat down behind the rock and closed his eyes. He performed the hand seals of one of the basic water techniques that he knew. Feeling a tug from deep below the ground, he concentrated on building up his chakra into a steady flow, and began to feed it bit by bit. In the distance, he heard further screams of pain coming from the Kusa team and felt a glimmer of pride. Mayu's genjutsu operated through her blue birds – if a bird made physical contact with another person, they would immediately fall under her trap. She could cause them to feel any sensation, including intense pain. The Suna genin probably wouldn't have fallen for the trick, seeing as how they were familiar with the birds of the region, but the Kusa genin hadn't suspected a thing.

Now this left the two remaining Suna teams. Trusting Rai to handle one, Naruto fed an extra burst of chakra into the technique, and then finally pulled from far below the surface: "Suiton: Idomizu (_Water Release: Well Water_)!" Opening his eyes – blinking rapidly to adjust them once more to the sun – he inhaled deeply, rapidly forming the hand signals for his followup jutsu. When his lungs were full, he blew the same strong gust of wind towards the rock of the Suna team.

Once again, they prepared to leap behind their rock – and froze as they couldn't. Looking down, they found their feet submerged in quicksand. With a yelp of panic as the sharp wind blew towards them, they ducked down. The wind blew over their bodies, and smashed against the face of the rock. With looks of blatant relief, they straightened up – and then froze once more, as the rock teetered dangerously. Disbelief dawning on their faces as their bodies continued to be swallowed up by the quicksand, they helplessly looked up as the rock wavered back and forth above them. After a few seconds of dangerous indecision, the rock finally lost its battle against the combined force of gravity and an unsteady base. Only the genins' screaming heads were visible above the ground now, and with a groaning sound, its base rose out of the ground as it began to fall on the immobile genin.

Sweating from the effort, Naruto rapidly gave an extra hard tug with his chakra below the ground, urging more water to gush up. Just before the rock hit the ground, the genins faces slipped below the watery quicksand with a slurping sound. There was a tense moment of silence, in which the sounds of the other battles around them seemed magnified. Finally, a second later, the three genins heads popped up again above ground from besides the rock, which floated on the surface. Naruto let out a sigh of relief. Their faces were smeared with mud, but they were alive. Hacking and coughing out mud, they limply floated in the quicksand.

Not being of the water affinity, the redhead had known he wouldn't be able to create water out of nothing, the way he could with wind. But if there was a water source nearby, he should be able to manipulate it with his chakra. Since they were in a desert, Naruto hadn't been expecting to have access to the necessary water to create quicksand, but to his surprise, there had already been a water source beneath them. He hadn't realized at first, but he had recalled the genin from Takigakure complaining about the mud, and that had been enough for him to collect the pieces together for his plan.

Sitting down on the ground besides their standing rock, Naruto saw that Mayu and Rai were already done. The genin from Kusa were all slumped around their rock, frothing at the mouth. Mayu's blue bird was chirping from on top of one their chests. The two other Suna genin struggled as they stood pinned against their rock with multiple kunai. A destroyed scorpion puppet lay in pieces by their feet.

"You overdid it, Naruto," said Rai with his eyebrows raised, taking in the chaos of the quicksand.

"Good work everyone," said Mayu with a more confident smile on her face. She raised a finger, and one of her birds landed on it. Naruto nodded, and turned around to look at the remaining desert space. The chūnin examiners were collecting the incapacitated genin, and most of the battles were still going on. The pristine rows of rocks from barely ten minutes ago were already in shambles. Some of the rocks had been shattered into pieces, and he could see several genin moving feebly under the fragments. By the looks of it, less than twenty teams would be passing.

"Team 79 passes the first test," said Baki. "Standby for the second test."

* * *

**A/N:** For the exams: Neither Kumogakure or Iwagakure will participate because they are not allied with Sunagakure.

Also, I ask that all readers suspend some belief regarding the usage of physics and jutsu in this chapter and all following chapters...I am not an expert at either. I didn't want Naruto and his team to struggle in the relatively easy first test, but I wanted them to be a bit creative. However, it will get a bit harder later on for them.

As for pairing: Naruto will be paired with a canon character much later on in the story. There is a reason why the story isn't tagged romance however.


	9. Deep, Dark, Crystal Cave

**Tale of the Setting Sun**

Chapter 9: "Deep, Dark, Crystal Cave"

* * *

The teams that had managed to take out their opponent teams before the time limit were all gathered in a large room with rows of clay chairs. When Naruto and his team arrived, only one other team from Amegakure was there. Their eyes were bloodshot as they glared at team Kakashi, and in wordless agreement, they chose seats at the opposite end of the room.

As the minutes passed, the remaining teams came trickling in, each looking increasingly more bedraggled. With ten minutes left on the clock, he noticed the Konoha rookies coming in. Despite how long it had taken them, they did not seem particularly worn down and walked in with confident demeanors. Rai noticed as well, and beckoning for Mayu and Naruto to follow him, he made his way over to the girl with Chinese-style buns.

"Hey, Tenten!" said Rai. The girl perked up at her name, but when she saw Rai, her face fell.

"Oh...it's you," said Tenten flatly.

"It's been a while," said Rai, ignoring her lack of enthusiasm. Naruto got the impression that this was not an unusual dynamic for them. He wondered if something had happened in their past. "This is pipsqueak – I mean, Tenten, guys. These are my teammates, Mayu and Naruto." Mayu shyly smiled at them.

"This is Neji Hyūga and Rock Lee," replied Tenten reluctantly, gesturing to the two boys besides her. The one with the clear eyes had to be the Hyūga, so that meant the one with the bushy eyebrows and the martial arts belt around his waist was Rock Lee.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Rock Lee," said Lee, with a flashing grin and a thumbs-up. He seemed reasonably friendly, and hadn't reacted at all to Naruto's countenance the way other villagers did. On the other hand, Naruto had never seen him before, so it was possible that the boy was one of the war orphans who'd kept to the orphanage.

"You're Kakashi's team, aren't you?" said Neji, glancing at them coolly.

"What?! So you're the pupils of Gai-sensei's eternal rival?!" said Lee. "You will make worthy opponents then!"

"Is Gai your team leader?" asked Mayu.

"Yes," answered Tenten, with a warmer smile for the other girl. "You guys must be the reason why Gai-sensei wanted us to take the exam this year as rookies."

"I've never heard of Gai though," said Rai, raising an eyebrow. "Are you sure he and Kakashi-sensei are rivals?"

"Are you sure you've never heard of him?!" said Lee, his already circular eyes growing even wider than Naruto had thought possible. "He's the strongest jōnin in Konoha, with a record of – "

"You're Naruto Uzumaki?" interrupted Neji. His pale gaze did not waver from Naruto's, who had been standing quietly in the back until now. "The one who graduated from the Academy two years early?"

"That's right," said Naruto, matching his calm attitude.

"He's our local genius, the kind born only once a generation, yadda yadda," said Rai, throwing a companionable arm around the redhead. With a sly smile, he added tauntingly, "Kinda like you Hyūga, I'd say." Neji's eyes narrowed, but he didn't respond.

"A genius?" Lee looked startled, and then with a determined expression, his eyebrows furrowed. "In that case, I challenge you to a fight."

"Right now?" said Naruto, startled. When Lee nodded, Naruto thought it over for a second and then shook his head. "I'll have to decline. There's no saying when the second test will begin. I'd rather not expend any more energy than necessary until the exam is over." Lee frowned, looking disappointed.

"You say that like you expect to win," said Neji, with a mocking smile.

"As if any of us would lose to some rookies," Rai butted in brashly. Tenten rolled her eyes and gave a loud sigh of annoyance. Without another word, she began to usher her teammates away to find seats. Cupping his hands around his mouth, Rai hollered "Good luck, rookies! You'll need it!"

"You could be a bit nicer, Rai," admonished Mayu, watching them walk away.

"They were too cocky for a bunch of rookies. I'm going to enjoy beating her – I mean them, down," said Rai with relish.

"You're such a kid sometimes."

"Yeah, well..."

As his teammates began to bicker, Naruto's gaze followed the retreating backs of the rookies. He hadn't gotten much of an impression of Tenten besides the fact that she and Rai seemed to have a strange rivalry going on. Moving on, there was Lee. He seemed determined to make a name for himself, judging from the way he'd instantly challenged Naruto. His heavily bandaged fists also indicated strong resolve. The redhead's eyes flicked towards the figure with long black hair. And then there was Neji, who had been a bit more scathing than expected, but Naruto felt impressed at his self-control. He'd thought when he saw him before that perhaps the calm attitude was all an act, but the first test had barely ruffled his feathers. The Hyūga boy was the real thing after all. Team Gai would all likely be strong contenders in the exam. Naruto didn't mind; so long as they didn't get in their way, he thought that the more Konoha genin that passed, the better.

Naruto let his gaze wander around the room. From a rough estimate, there were about eighteen teams seated in the room, about evenly distributed in terms of villages. Many of them looked weary, with purple bruises and scratches all around their body. Only a scant few seemed relatively untouched, like himself and his teammates. Simply judging from their lack of presence, compared to the Konoha rookies, they did not seem like they would be much of a challenge for him...

Naruto mentally chided himself. Looks could be deceiving. That was what being a ninja was all about, after all – blending in with the shadows and offering oneself as harmless so as to lower the enemy's guard. And then, just when the enemy had relaxed and left an opening, you struck.

Suddenly, he turned around as he felt a tendril of intensely cold blood lust creeping in from the entrance. A sandaled foot emerged from around the corner – and just as the bloodlust vanished as quickly as it had appeared, he saw Kabuto walk in, with his teammates trailing behind. Naruto closely examined the teammates, but they looked fairly ordinary with black masks covering most of their faces. He frowned; could this be an example of precisely what he'd been thinking of just moments ago? Of a snake, coiled around its unsuspecting prey, poised to strike with its poisonous fangs?

* * *

It turned out that Kabuto's team had been the last one to pass, for no one else had come in when a bell rang piercingly at the one-hour mark. As all the gathered genin simultaneously turned to look, a pair of doors that had been closed flung open with a bang. A file of Suna chūnin marched in, with a different jōnin at their head. He looked younger than Baki, with black hair that hung over his right eye.

"Congratulations on passing the first test of the Chūnin Selection Exam," said the jōnin, his indifferent expression belying his words. "My name is Yūra, and I will be your second examiner. Regardless of whether any of your teammates are capable or not, the second test will commence within the hour. But first, we will proceed to the venue for the second test."

Following the chūnin past the doors they had just come through, it was revealed to be a long tunnel-like hallway that sloped sharply downwards. The walls were made of sanded rock and it was dark, lit only occasionally by stone torches. As they shuffled in silence down the steps, Naruto looked around. The air was growing increasingly colder and damper, and the sputtering lights from the torches were growing weaker: it seemed the second test would be taking place underground.

Mayu stumbled besides him, and as Naruto reached out to steady her, he suddenly noticed how pale her face was.

"Are you alright?" asked Naruto. He wondered if she had gotten injured during the first test, and whether it would be serious enough to affect their chances in the second test.

"Y-yeah...I just don't like feeling trapped in small spaces," she muttered, pulling away from him. Naruto exchanged worried looks with Rai, who tried to say something to her. She ignored him however, and for the rest of the journey, she didn't talk again.

After twenty minutes, the ground finally leveled out again and soon, they emerged into what appeared to be a narrow underground cavern. There were twelve gaping human-sized tunnel holes in the opposite rock wall. A torch burned besides each entrance.

Naruto immediately realized the nature of the second test: it was likely going to be some sort of maze. Besides him, Mayu must have come to the same conclusion, for she began to tremble.

"I will now explain the details of the second test. And then, before starting, I will need everyone here to sign these agreement forms," said Yūra, standing in the middle of the cavern. With a rustling sound, one of the chūnin pulled out a sheaf of papers and began passing them out. "There will be deaths in this test, and it won't be against the rules this time. So if I don't have you sign these, it will become my responsibility." It was silent. "In this test, it will be a survival of the fittest. Each team will enter the maze through a tunnel in the order that they passed the first test. Here are some details about the maze: we are two hundred feet below ground level, and if you take the correct path all the way through, it is about three kilometers long before ending up at the surface. All the tunnels intersect one another at multiple points. Using whatever weapons and jutsu you have available, your objective will be to obtain two team plates. This includes your own team plate, so if you manage to protect yours, you need only secure one other one. If your team plate is taken, you will need the team plates of two other teams. To pass this test, you and your team must reach the end of this maze with two team plates."

"They're cutting us at least in half now..." A genin grumbled.

"There is also a time limit. This second test will last 120 hours. That is exactly five days."

"Five days?!" said Rai. "What about light...food?! Water?!"

"You will be given a torch, but there are other sources of light within the maze. As for food and water...well, you'll have to figure that out on your own," Yūra's eyes gleamed maliciously. "Those who cannot learn to adapt will die from the harshness of the course. Now, I will talk about what will disqualify you. First, those that don't make it to the end of the tunnel with two plates within the time limit. Second, anyone who creates their own tunnels that reach to the surface. And third, anyone who destroys a team plate." A genin from Amegakure raised his hand.

"What if not everyone on our team survives?"

"Your objective is to reach the end of the tunnel with two plates," said Yūra. "Even if you are the only surviving member of your team, you will pass if you complete this requirement." He gestured towards a copy of the form in his hand. "That is all, so after signing the form as a team, go stand by one of the entrances. One team per entrance only."

As the genin signed the forms, Naruto stared down at the paper in his hand. The second test was very telling of the remainder of the exam, as well as the code that the shinobi of Suna lived by. It was apparent that for Suna, the accomplishment of a mission took precedence over the lives of the ninja – failure was not an option. Furthermore, the fact that the entire team was not required for completion of the second test indicated that the third part of the exam, unlike the first two, would test individuals. The third test would likely pit the remaining contenders against one another in direct battles.

"D'you think any of these tunnels are easier than the others?" mused Rai. By the time they'd handed in their forms, half the teams had already picked an entrance. They now waited outside one of the tunnels, tensely waiting for the rest.

"Possibly," said Naruto. "But he said that they intersect, so it's unlikely to matter." He glanced at Mayu, who had stopped shaking during the explanation but was still pale. He hesitated, searching for the right words awkwardly. He still wasn't very used to comforting people. "The tunnels should widen, so it shouldn't be too bad, Mayu."

"I'm fine," she said shortly through gritted teeth. Naruto blinked, taken aback by her unusually abrupt tone. She clearly wasn't fine, so he wondered why she was lying to him. But he'd noticed that people, particularly girls, did not often voice what they truly felt, and he figured that this was one of those times. With Rai shooting him warning glances, Naruto decided to just let it go and hope she would pull herself back together.

Since the team from Amegakure had been the first to pass, they were the first to disappear into the gaping black hole. As the sounds of their footsteps faded, a chūnin examiner walked up to Naruto and his team and marked their team number by the entrance. Rai lifted a torch from its handle.

"Good luck," Kabuto called out good-naturedly from two entrances away. His masked teammates besides him looked at them sullenly.

"You too," said Rai with a roll of his eyes, waving back. Mayu jerked her head at him forcefully, her face still pale. Naruto was spared from having to respond when, just then, Yūra gave them the signal to go. Taking a step forward, they walked into the darkness.

The light from the cavern behind them quickly faded, and the tunnel began to curve slightly to the right. When they turned the corner, the cavern completely disappeared from view and the only light now came from the torch in Rai's hand. However, the fire was weak and was barely strong enough to light up the path directly in front of them. Naruto wondered how long it would last. The wood was burning slowly but surely, and Naruto estimated that unless the chūnin examiners were going to stroll over and replace them for them – which was extremely unlikely – it would burn out within several hours. Then, they would be left in the pitch dark. Naruto wasn't worried since he had trained extensively in the dark, but he wondered how Mayu would fare.

"Do you hear something?" Rai suddenly said. Naruto stopped, and listened carefully. Sure enough he could hear something echoing far ahead. It sounded like dripping.

"Water, likely," Naruto said thoughtfully.

"Water? Down here?" said Rai disbelievingly.

"Remember how we had to climb those mountains to reach Suna? Mountains are just tilted layers of porous sedimentary rocks, and they usually run under the desert. Whenever it rains or snows, they soak into the layers, creating reservoirs of groundwater. The water is apparently quite clean as well, so it's safe to drink."

"Uh...well, if you say so," said Rai, scratching his head. "So now that the issue of water's solved, what's the plan for food and this maze?"

"There'll probably be some animals that we can eat around here," Mayu said suddenly. As Naruto had predicted, the tunnels had gradually widened in diameter as they walked further inside, and it seemed she felt better with more space around them. The redhead made a mental note that leaving people alone sometimes worked. "I think we should find food and water first, before anything else."

"I agree," said Naruto with a nod. "And after dealing with food, we should find a secure location. It'll be difficult finding somewhere truly hidden inside these tunnels, so we should look for a place with more space to prepare an ambush. For tonight though, we should conserve our energy and just rest. Other teams will be worked up and trying to attack one another first, and they'll be easy pickings for us later on."

They picked up their pace, and soon saw a pale blue light in the distance. When they reached the light, they found themselves emerging from the narrow tunnel into a large cavern that was easily three times the size of the one they had left before. The ground was clustered with large boulders and the walls were lined with something that was emitting the light. As the other two gawked up at the sheer size, Naruto cautiously went over to the wall. Touching it, he realized what Yūra had meant by 'other sources of light.' It was a soft and mossy type of plant that he had never seen before, and it glowed, washing the cavern with ethereal blue light.

Mayu suddenly let out a shriek, and as Naruto turned around to face her, he saw something small and black streaking out from behind a grey boulder. Rai reacted immediately, throwing a kunai. Striking the thing right in its chest, it let out a small squeal before slumping on the ground. Naruto stepped forward and nudged it with its feet. It was a small furry mole-like creature with a pink snout.

"Looks like we've found our dinner," said Rai smugly, folding his arms across his chest.

* * *

Naruto eventually found the source of the dripping water to be a crack in the wall. Chipping holes into fist-sized rocks with their kunai, they took turns collecting water. Then, after hunting down several more of the mole-like animals, they nestled themselves behind a boulder with their findings. After Rai skinned the animals, Naruto had just begun to ponder how to cook the meat over their dying torch when Mayu revealed something about herself that took him by surprise.

"Your chakra nature is fire?" said Naruto, blinking. On further thought, he supposed he shouldn't have been surprised. The fire chakra nature was common among shinobi of Konoha after all. But she had never before demonstrated knowledge of any fire-based techniques.

"Yes, that's right," said Mayu, nodding. "I'm not very good at it though, so I usually stuck to genjutsu."

"How does it work?" asked Rai curiously.

"Well...I gather the chakra in my stomach and then kind of put pressure on it, heating it up. Then when it's ready, I blow it out. Here, let me show you." Her hands moving quickly to make the signs, she blew lightly on the wooden torch: "Katon: Takibi (_Fire Release: Bonfire_)!"

A stream of fire came out from her mouth which, though weak, nevertheless strengthened the torch's flame to a respectable level. Rai smacked his lips in appreciation.

After cooking the meat over the torch and eating it – it was stringy but edible – they had just begun to decide the order of who would stand sentry first, when another team entered the cavern. Naruto, hearing their foreign footsteps, noticed first, and quieted the two down immediately with a raised fist. As Rai and Mayu pressed their bodies down against the ground, Naruto crept to the side of the boulder and peered around its edge. When he saw who it was, some of the tension left his body, but he remained hidden.

The rookies of Konoha wandered through the cavern, looking just as amazed by the light-emitting moss as they had been.

"Amazing! Truly, this is a springtime of youth!" said Lee, punching the air.

"Quiet, Lee! Is there another team here, Neji?" asked Tenten. Naruto saw the pale eyed boy turn around, and immediately noticed that the veins around his temple were bulging. His Byakugan was activated. The boy looked directly at the boulder where Naruto and his team were currently hiding behind, and smirked.

"Yeah...but we'll leave them alone for now," said Neji. "They're _lucky_ we're not interested in fighting them right now. Come on, let's find another place to find shelter." His teammates nodded without protest, and they leaped to the exit on the other side of the cavern. When Naruto could no longer hear them, he motioned that it was safe. Mayu let out a sigh of relief, and crawled out.

"Who were they?" asked Rai.

"The rookies," said Naruto. "They saw us, but they didn't want to fight."

"They must have had the same idea as us," nodded Mayu. She stood up, brushing sand off of her pants. "It's getting late. Do you guys mind if I sleep first? I think it'll help my claustrophobia a little if I rest a bit, and I'll be able to stay more alert later."

When neither Naruto nor Rai raised any objections, she pulled out a scroll from one of her pouches. With a cloud of smoke, a blue sleeping bag appeared, and without another word, she burrowed into it. Mayu zipped it up over her head, and was still.

Naruto and Rai looked at one another, and then Rai jerked his head.

"Go on, I'll stand watch first. I'm not sleepy anyways," said the black-haired boy. Naruto nodded, and ripping off a layer of moss on the walls, he lay down on the ground. He didn't have a sleeping bag, but he didn't need one; he had no problem sleeping on hard surfaces, and he had the moss as a pillow.

Looking up at the pitch black ceiling, Naruto wondered if it the sun had set yet above the ground. His internal clock told him that it was likely around six in the evening, but it had been thrown off a little since they traveled to the Land of Wind, so it was probably an hour or two off. Naruto sighed. He couldn't wait for this test to be over, so they could go back to the surface. Ever since he was young, he'd had the habit of watching the sunset from his window. Not being able to see the sun or the sky unsettled him.

He had just been about to drift to sleep when suddenly, a quiet voice spoke up.

"Hey, Naruto," said Rai hesitantly. Naruto didn't respond, and Rai must have thought he was asleep, for he sounded more comfortable as he kept talking. "I just wanted to say...you're alright. I thought at first there must've been something off about you, since Mayu didn't like you and she's usually right about people. Plus the others in the village don't like you either for some reason, so I figured you must've done something really bad. But you're alright after all. Even Mayu kinda likes you now, and it's real hard to get her to change her opinion about someone." There was a pause, and Naruto felt something wave gently over his face; Rai must have been checking to see whether Naruto was awake or not. The redhead continued to breath slowly and evenly, a little amused at how both his teammates chose to talk to him when he was feigning sleep.

"I don't know why I'm telling you this since you're asleep, but I figured you should hear something like this from someone even if you don't realize it, and I had to get it off my chest or I'd feel like I was gonna explode...does that make sense?" Rai stopped again, and Naruto could almost hear the gears in his brain grinding as they struggled to work it out. "Well, whatever. I've always had this bad feeling about you, even more so when I found out your birthday during that time in Academy when we had to fill out a calendar...I guess you already know that you were born on the day of the Kyūbi attack eleven years ago. And...I wasn't being perfectly honest before about what happened with my parents, since Mayu told me not to but, to tell the truth...My parents, and Mayu's dad, were one of the ninja killed by the Kyūbi during the initial attack, and well...I mean, I know you were a baby and all, but it just gave me the creeps. My brother won't tell me what really happened on the day, and we never learned much about it in the Academy either, but I'm guessing it's why you're an orphan too. But...none of that matters now. I'm glad you're my teammate. You're gonna be a good ninja. Not better than me of course, but a good one. Just thought you should know..." Rai trailed off, and didn't speak again. It was silent, except for Mayu's soft breathing.

It was typical of the rash boy sitting beside him to blabber on when he was supposed to be standing guard. Ninja, by nature, were not supposed to voice their opinions in such a direct manner – and Rai had always fell short of these expectations. But despite his innate aversion for his teammate's lack of restraint, for the moment, Naruto couldn't help but feel an unusually warm and light sensation rising inside of him. It was one thing to sense that his teammates were opening up to him, it was quite another to be actually told what they thought of him in such a positive way. Suddenly, all the abuse he'd received over the years didn't seem to matter anymore in the face of such raw camaraderie.

Thinking these thoughts, Naruto fell asleep with a small smile on his face.

* * *

**A/N: **This second test was based off of the one in Hunter x Hunter.

Next, some people keep asking about how Naruto knows the shadow clone technique. Let me emphasize once more that the one he knows is not the forbidden version (Tajuu).

**Edit 7/13/13: **Edited a few details relevant to future plots. Deleted (and modified) a plot point involving Kabuto that I no longer want to pursue, but it's not too important.


	10. Dark Clouds Approach

**Tale of the Setting Sun**

Chapter 10: "Dark Clouds Approach"

* * *

When Naruto opened his eyes, he was momentarily disoriented by the glowing blue lights around him before he remembered where he was. As he yawned, he quickly tabulated all the recent events in his mind. They were somewhere deep under Sunagakure, in the midst of the maze of the second test. They had figured out how to get water, food, and had found shelter for the night. Now, they would have to decide how to fulfill the second set of requirements of the exam – obtaining another team's number plate while protecting their own, which Mayu was currently holding on to.

As Naruto grew more alert, he was shaken out of his thoughts when his nose picked up the aroma of roasting meat wafted through the air. His stomach growled, and he got up, sniffing the air. Turning around, he saw Mayu sitting beside a small makeshift campfire, and from the looks of it, she had prepared breakfast as they slept. Much of the color in her face had returned, and judging from the small smile on her face, she certainly felt better. She was currently turning several stone sticks skewered through meat and what looked like pale yellow vegetables over the flickering fire. Sitting down on the ground besides Rai, they shared identical looks of gratitude as she offered them their portions, and dug in. It was quiet for several minutes as they ate, watching the shadow of their fire dancing on the moss-covered walls. Finally, Rai spoke up.

"Now that we're rested and all," Rai viciously tore a chunk of meat off of his stick, "Ish shtime to shake outh some rootkies, yeah?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full," said Mayu mildly, nibbling at the meat in her hands. Rai scowled and began to chew even more noisily than before.

"It's been about thirteen hours since the test began, leaving us with just under 110 hours. We can either wait for the last two days, or strike fast and finish early," said Naruto, "and if we wait it out, it's likely that we'll get our choose of the pickings among the weaker teams still remaining." Mayu gave a thoughtful nod.

"That's true...but then, the ones who still haven't passed at that point might be more desperate...and maybe more dangerous," she said.

"Ah, this is pointless talk," Rai snorted. "Let's just go all out now, and show them what we've got!"

"And on top of capturing another plate," said Mayu, acting as if she hadn't heard Rai, "we also have to think about reaching the surface. We haven't come across a dead-end, but since this is a maze, it'll eventually come up...right?" She turned to Naruto searchingly. He hid a smile behind the remainder of his breakfast as he pretended to ponder her question. It hadn't escaped his notice how much more she had begun to voice her opinions. Naruto had had to reevaluate his assessment of her several times as she revealed a deeper and more perceptive side to her. However, she was still unsure of her capabilities and frequently turned to him for affirmation.

"We haven't come across one yet, but many of the tunnels likely end in dead ends," he said, "and I agree with what you said. Desperation breeds desperate measures, so we should try and finish this quickly and early. So while keeping an eye out for enemy teams and booby traps, it'll be best if we start mapping out the maze. Every time the tunnels diverge, we'll mark the path we took with a marker that only we'll recognize, and if we come across it again we'll take the other path." Rai jumped to his feet, throwing his finished stick on the ground in his enthusiasm, as Mayu's face brightened at Naruto's approval.

Sweeping sand over their campfire, they quickly concealed all signs of their overnight presence. Then, working under the assumption that Neji would have used his Byakugan to choose the best possible route, they left the blue cavern through the same tunnel Naruto had seen the rookies go through the day before.

As the dimly lit pathway rapidly decreased in diameter, they were forced to walk closer together. Naruto felt Mayu shudder, and picked up their pace. Soon, however, they stopped, as the tunnel forked into two different paths – one widened out and sloped upwards while the other narrowed and sloped downwards.

"So...which one will it be?" said Rai, eyeing the two paths. Mayu wordlessly edged towards the wider path, making her preference obvious. "Yeah, but that's exactly what they'd expect us to take, right? How 'bout we take a vote, yeah? Naruto?" They looked at the redhead, who had just positioned himself directly in the middle of the fork and closed his eyes. He raised both of his arms, and then a moment later, opened his eyes. He began to head down the wider path, and motioned for his teammates to follow him.

"I can feel a slight breeze coming from this path," Naruto explained when he saw the questioning looks on his teammate's faces. "The air from the other side is still, so it's likely a dead end." They shared bemused looks but trusted his judgment.

However, while they navigated through the tunnels of the underground maze, they were forced to resort to a wide variety of tactics. Mayu sent out her bluebirds ahead of them, and they provided a constant stream of information, which, though limited, was immensely helpful in sketching out their mental map of the caves. Rai kept a sharp eye out for signs of fights and scuffles as well as keeping track of which tunnels they had already went down. Meanwhile, when Naruto wasn't able to discern any difference between the wind currents of a split in the pathway, he sent out a shadow clone down one while they walked down the other.

After several hours, during which they made fast progress, Naruto suddenly came to a halt and winced. One of the shadow clones he had sent out twenty minutes ago had just fallen into a pit full of fat larvae before promptly dissipating. Shivering at the sensation of crawling all over his body, he narrowly almost missed the extra shadow that flickered behind them.

Without reacting or changing his expression, Naruto began to walk again. Raising his hand to brush a lock of his hair out of his eyes, he twitched his pinky. Glancing sideways, he made eye contact with Rai, who gave an imperceptible nod. Dramatically making groaning sounds, Rai slumped down on the ground.

"Man, I'm starving," he complained loudly. "It's about time for lunch, isn't it? We've come pretty far, let's find some food now!"

"I agree," said Naruto, sliding down to the ground to join Rai. Mayu raised an eyebrow at the rare sight. "Let's take a break for now."

"Well, alright then," said Mayu. "I'll collect some vegetables, so how about you two get the moles?"

"Sounds good," said Rai, pulling out a kunai and twirling it in his hand. "C'mon, Naruto. Let's go find some..._moles_." At his last words, he jumped up and disappeared. A moment later, he reappeared at the opposite end of the tunnel, holding his kunai to the neck of a dark-skinned male genin with long hair.

At the same time, Naruto swiftly threw a shuriken up at the ceiling. The other genin who had been hanging above them, a stocky blond male, managed to avoid the shuriken as he scuttled down the wall to the ground. Without a look back at his teammate, he fled to the nearest hole and disappeared. Naruto didn't move, watching the hole expectantly. Several seconds later, there was a yelp of shock and pain from the direction the genin had ran to. The sound of something being dragged across rough ground reverberated through the hollow tunnel, and soon, his shadow clone emerged, dragging the unconscious genin behind him by his collar. The shadow clone tossed the body to the ground beside where Rai stood with the other struggling genin.

They tied the two genin together against a boulder, and as Mayu searched their bodies for their team plate, Naruto looked around the surrounding tunnels warily. Judging from their hitai-ate, they were from Takigakure, but it looked like they were just a two-man team. When he had first detected their presences behind him, he had thought that perhaps their third member was farther behind and acting as backup. But he couldn't detect a third presence anywhere, meaning that their third member was either too far away, or that they had somehow lost their third member. Naruto played with the idea that their third had managed to conceal their presence from him, but he dismissed that almost instantly; though poorly lit with ample shadows to hide in, these tunnels were far too narrow and cramped for anyone to continuously hide from him for this long.

"Where's your third? Is he waiting to ambush us, or what?" Rai voiced Naruto's thoughts, nudging the dark one who was still conscious. The genin scowled ferociously, glaring at them through narrowed eyes.

"Like I'd tell you little br...ow, ow!" he trailed off as Naruto's shadow clone shoved him down with his foot. Naruto calmly kneeled beside the genin, and coldly looked him directly in the eye. As the genin watched with horror growing in his eyes, the redhead then pressed the tip of his kunai against the inside of the genin's fingernail, putting in just enough pressure to induce pain.

"First it'll be your fingernails, and then your fingers," said Naruto quietly, "that is, unless you talk. Where is your other teammate?"

"D-didn't you hear me the first time?" the genin spat at his feet. "You're not gonna get nothing outta – " he broke off and let out a howl of pain as Naruto thrust his kunai up. With a sick popping sound, his index finger's nail fell off.

"Naruto!" said Mayu, her face even paler than before. She stepped forward, but Rai held her back. He looked a little green as well, but his jaw was set.

"That was just a fingernail," said Naruto softly. The genin's eyes widened, tears of pain leaking out. "Imagine how much more it would hurt if I did that to a finger."

"Alright, alright! She's not here, we ditched her!" he yelped. "We don't know where she is!"

Naruto stood up; he could tell from his body language that the genin was telling the truth – or at least, believed it. Swinging his kunai up, he hit the head of the genin with its blunt end, knocking the man out. The genin's head crumpled down against his chest.

"W-was that really necessary?" asked Mayu. She looked at him with wide eyes, and Naruto internally sighed as he saw something in her face that he hadn't seen in a while – fear.

"We're ninja, Mayu," said Rai harshly. "This's what we do. Stop being such a baby." Mayu flinched, and didn't respond. Instead, with trembling hands, she put the hood of her cloak up over her head. Rai grabbed the team plate she had been clutching in her hand; the number 44 was engraved on it. He tossed it into the air, and then grabbed it before tucking it into his pocket. "Ha, that was easy."

* * *

Leaving the trussed up genin behind them, they silently walked through the dark tunnel while Naruto's shadow clone slunk back into the darkness to trail them. As Naruto watched Mayu stiffly move away from him, he felt his heart sink a little. He did not feel any remorse for having handled the situation in that way, but he wondered if he should have held back for Mayu's sake. Some of her former aversion to Naruto seemed to have returned, and he knew that would be detrimental to their chances of making it through the Chūnin exam. It was unfortunate; despite her valuable skill of perception, she had always been the least desensitized of the three and the most averse to solutions to situations that required violence. To be honest, Naruto sometimes wondered whether she was truly suited for the life of a ninja, and he wondered what he would do if she were to ever get in his way during a mission.

Naruto knew he wouldn't be able to physically remove her, because despite how much Rai had recently warmed up to him, he knew that the black-haired boy would turn on him in an instant. Then, he would be forced to take out both of his teammates, and that would likely hurt the mission more than help it. Furthermore, the more time he spent with his teammates, the more the thought of harming them felt repugnant to him. Naruto enjoyed spending time with them, especially since they didn't hate him the way the other villagers did and actually seemed to like spending time with him. Rai's words from the night before echoed through his mind... No, having a team had provided a lot of new experiences for him, and he was unwilling to cut any of it away.

But at the same time, if they were to get in his way of the mission...that was something he could not allow.

Naruto was wrenched from his thoughts as for the second time that day, he came to a sudden halt and froze. He automatically pulled out his tantō from its sheath on his back as the memories of his shadow clone flooded his mind; it had just been attacked from behind. The last thing it had seen before disappearing was a flash of white. Before he could let out a warning, a high-pitched voice called out from behind them.

"Stop right there!"

Shock flooding his system, Naruto immediately spun around, dropping into an offensive stance. Besides him, his teammates mirrored his actions. However, the genin that they saw remained calm and seemingly defenseless even as she casually walked towards them. She had short, spiky green hair and orange eyes. She was wearing an unusual outfit that consisted of a short midriff white shirt and an apron skirt, and something cylindrical in red wrapping at her back. Naruto's eyes flickered to the hitai-ate slung around her right arm; the waterfall symbol of Takigakure stared back at him.

That, and judging from the way she was alone, she was likely the third teammate that had been abandoned by the genin they'd captured their plate from. Naruto's grip on the tantō in his hand tightened. His shadow clone hadn't even sensed her coming up behind him, which he had thought was impossible in such a closed space. Furthermore, he could feel it in his bones – despite her seemingly harmless exterior, his every nerve was screaming that she was powerful. There was something foreign about the girl that caused a chill to wrack his body – foreign, and yet at the same time, somewhat familiar. But before he could puzzle over it further, his teammates sprung into action beside him.

Rai released a barrage of shuriken at the girl, while Mayu's hands blurred into action and her bluebirds shrilled as they took off into the air. Dodging the shuriken, the girl picked up speed and began to run towards them. Jumping up over the birds, her hands blurred as she opened her mouth: "Hiden: Rinpungakure no Jutsu (_Secret: Hiding in Scale Powder Technique_)!"

Prepared to counter it, Naruto also opened his mouth with his hands making the hand signs. Gathering his chakra into his lungs, he expelled a strong gust of wind: "Fūton: Daitoppa (_Wind Release: Great Breakthrough_)!"

However,to his surprise, what came out of her mouth was something powdery that sparkled, lighting up the tunnel around them. Before Naruto could wonder at its purpose, it made itself clear as the powder rapidly brightened into an intense light akin to that of the afternoon sun, sending searing hot pain into his eyeballs. Hearing Rai howl in agony besides him, Naruto shut his eyes reflexively. He could hear the wind he had exhaled blow through the tunnel, but it was too late – the powder had done its work. Opening his eyes, he could only see throbbing circles of yellow and orange that threw him off balance; he staggered.

"Shouldn't have done that!" said the girl brightly. Judging from her voice, she was standing right in front of them, and yet, to his growing alarm, Naruto couldn't sense her presence at all.

"What the hell is this, you bitch?!" Rai snarled, clawing at his eyes. The intense white light was gradually dimming, but Naruto could still only make out, at best, several blobs around him.

"The name's Fū," she said. "That was my Scale Powder technique, but don't worry, the effects aren't permanent. Usually, anyways. Well, I'm just here to get my team plate back. So, which one of you has it?" Rai must have given himself away with an involuntary twitch, for the girl immediately pounced on him. "Ah, so you do!" There was a muffled yelp and a rustle of clothing. "Thanks. See ya laters, alligators!" There was a pause. "Or not."

His vision was restored enough now so that he could see a faint shadowy figure bouncing up and running away from them. Rai let out a growl of frustration, and made to get up, but Naruto held out a hand to stop him.

"What is it?!" Rai snapped.

"Don't," said Naruto firmly. "We're at a disadvantage right now. It'll be far easier to obtain another team's plate than to try and attack her – it isn't worth the effort." Rai let out another snarl of anger, spitting on the ground, but sat back down.

"Damn that girl," he grumbled, petulantly picking up a pebble from the ground and flinging it at the wall. "And that genin bastard. He lied to us! I'm gonna kill him!"

"I don't think he was," said Mayu quietly, rubbing her eyes. "They were probably traveling separately."

"Why the hell would they do that, when she's got that technique?" But Mayu had no answer for that.

With their vision finally restored, they began to press forward again. However, Mayu soon stopped them as her birds informed her that there was an impassable pit up ahead, and they turned around. As they silently walked back along the same path, Naruto's mind buzzed over the recent unexpected turn of events. He hadn't taken the exam seriously enough, obviously. The other team's plate had initially been as easy to capture as expected, but they'd barely had time to even look at the number before it'd been taken back by that girl – she'd said her name was Fū. He hadn't been able to gauge her offensive ability, but she'd exuded a kind of confidence that only came with years of experience. Naruto had chosen not to follow her, explaining it to his teammates that their time would be better spent hunting down other teams, but he had to wonder – had it been influenced by doubt...by fear, at all? He didn't doubt his own abilities. He believed that in a direct confrontation, he could take the girl down so long as he avoided her strange powder. But nevertheless, something about her had unsettled him.

With Rai still fuming in humiliation and Naruto lost in contemplation, Mayu was the first one to spot the obstacle in their path. She let out a small 'oh!' of surprise, and stopped. Coming back to his senses, Naruto peered ahead at the dimly lit path, and saw the two genin they had left behind still tied to the boulder. From the way they were sitting, he could tell that the blonde – the one he had knocked out – was still unconscious. However, the dark-skinned one that Rai had handled was now awake, and glared at them hatefully. A trickle of blood had dried halfway down his face.

"Did she not see them or something...?" muttered Rai, walking over and nudging the blonde experimentally with his foot. He turned to the dark-skinned genin. "Oi, did your third teammate pass by?"

"That..._thing's_ not a teammate of mine," the genin said coolly. Despite his obvious wrath, he seemed much more level-headed and controlled than his teammate. Rai scratched his head.

"Well, she took your team plate back from us," he confessed. "Wouldn't it have been...logical for her to have freed you guys while she was at it?"

"Monsters aren't logical."

"Monster?" repeated Naruto, his eyes narrowing. He noticed Mayu stiffening in surprise beside him, but ignored it. "What do you mean?" The genin looked up directly at Naruto, and for a moment, he thought that the genin wasn't going to respond. Next to him, the blonde genin suddenly twitched, his eyelids fluttering as they struggled to open. He let out a low moan.

"She's a _jinchūriki_." The genin's features twisted into one of utter loathing, and his eyes burned with a look that Naruto had seen often directed at himself.

"What's a jinchūriki?" asked Rai. Just then, the blonde's eyes snapped open, and the genin jerked awake into consciousness. Looking around wildly, taking in the scene, his mouth dropped open. Spotting Naruto standing by with his arms crossed, he flinched, and a look of horror began to dawn on his face.

"She's got a monster sealed inside of her...she's Takigakure's weapon," explained the genin. Upon hearing his teammate, the blonde's head jerked back as if he'd been slapped.

"Roki! What're you doing?! That's a village secret!" he hissed.

"I don't care," the genin, Roki, growled. "That thing killed my parents before they sealed it away. It deserves to die." The blonde stared at his teammate in utter shock.

"I know how you feel! But remember what Hibuki-sensei said to us about telling anything to outsiders! Do you even realize what you're doing right now?!"

"If it means I have to betray our village, so be it." The conviction rang loud and clear in his voice.

"By monster...what do you mean?" asked Naruto slowly, his mind whirling with possibilities. As Roki opened his mouth, the blonde genin struggled in vain to release himself from his bindings.

"Shut up! Roki!" he shouted, but Roki ignored him.

"A tailed beast. The Nanabi (_Seven-tails_)," said Roki, glaring up at them. Naruto's eyes widened. "So go tell your village and your Hokage. Go tell them that Takigakure's raising up a weapon, in order to become one of the five great villages. Come and _destroy_ it for us."

* * *

**A/N:** I hope it wasn't too fast-paced. I also took the liberty of making the effects of Fū's technique last a bit longer than in canon. A flash of intense light after spending so much time in darkness should burn out their sight longer than the split second it does in canon, in my opinion.

**Edit 7/11/13**: Removed a paragraph of Naruto's internal monologue. It is not essential to the plot but expressed a certain train of thought that I no longer want him to pursue. Also edited a sentence.


	11. Confrontation of the Black Shadow

**Tale of the Setting Sun**

Chapter 11: "Confrontation of the Black Shadow"

* * *

_October 10th, the day of Naruto's eight birthday and every birthday before that, was Memorial Day at Konoha. It was always a cold, dark and somber day, as if the skies themselves were in mourning. The sun hid itself behind its clouds, which loomed heavily and slowly over the village. The villagers, all garbed in black, gathered around the memorial marker for the fallen heroes of the day the Kyūbi attacked._

_Even at the Academy, there was always a special history lesson to begin the day for every class. The year before, when Naruto had been in Iruka's class, the chūnin had recounted for them how the shinobi of the village had fought bravely, holding off the Kyūbi from the rest of the village as they waited for the Fourth to arrive. Then, they had a moment of silence, before they resumed normal class activities. _

_But Naruto had been transferred to a new class two years his senior, and he found this year that his new instructor – a chūnin named Mizuki – conducted the lesson rather differently. Glossing cursorily over what the ninja had done, the man seemed to relish in describing the Kyūbi in detail. According to him, it was a colossal leviathan and each lashing tail rained destruction on the world every time it was swung. It was an uncontrollable force of nature, with fangs as long as a grown man and eyes that seethed with the burning fires of hell. The Nine-tails was a roiling, churning ball of evil, with only one intention in mind: to destroy anything and anyone in its path._

_A student raised his trembling hand and asked, "B-but the Fourth killed it, right sensei?" A murmur of uncomfortable agreement spread throughout the classroom. The students had all of course grown up hearing in their bedtime stories about the Kyūbi that had terrorized the prior generation, but they'd never had reason to fear it. Because always, at the end of every story, their mother or father had picked up their small hand and held it gently between their own bigger ones._

"_The Fourth Hokage, a hero who loved his village and who was loved by the village, was able to protect us. At the cost of his life, he defeated the Kyūbi so that the future generation...so that you, could in turn grow up to be fine shinobi and continue protecting Konoha." With a kiss to their forehead, and a click as the light turned off, they had always fallen asleep with smiles on their faces and dreams of becoming the next hero to save their village._

_But a strange, sly smile stretched across Mizuki-sensei's face as he heard the student's question. _

"_Well," he said, "the Fourth certainly...dealt with it for us. And that is why he is today, a hero." The chūnin bowed his head downwards in a show of respect, and all the students automatically copied his gesture. But just before Naruto obediently complied, Mizuki tilted his head and glanced in his direction. And for a moment, Naruto thought that the chūnin's eyes had lingered on him with a cold, hateful glint. But an instant later Mizuki's gaze had moved on to look fondly over the students. After a moment's hesitation, the redhead thought it more likely the fault of his overactive paranoia. Mizuki-sensei had treated him fairly over the past year, and seemed to bear no ill will against him. It wouldn't do for him to poison the opinion of his instructor, when he had so little support as it was._

_As he lowered his head, Naruto wondered briefly what Mizuki-sensei had meant by 'dealt.' He hadn't directly answered the student's question – could that mean that the Kyūbi was still alive and roaming the wilderness? Naruto's head hurt at the possibility, and he instantly dismissed it. The Fourth had been too great a man to have simply chased the beast away. He would have dealt with it in the best way possible for the village. And what else could that be, but to kill such an untamable monster?_

* * *

Team Oboro, hailing from Amegakure, never even saw it coming. Their plan had been to wait to the midpoint of the exam, so that the strongest teams would have finished and the weaker teams would have worn themselves out. They were still in top-shape and pumped for action by then, and with their nearly-perfected strategy of genjutsu and clone techniques, procuring a plate from the first exhausted genin team – from Suna, as it were – that passed by had been like taking candy from a baby. Armed with the necessary plates and the intelligence that their allied Ame team had given them prior to the exam, they'd been on course to reaching the exit of the maze and passing the second exam with ease.

If they hadn't gotten so caught up in the elation of their seemingly imminent success, they might have lasted a few seconds longer.

Their first indication of danger was when Mubi dropped his umbrella on the ground with a clatter. The boy himself quickly followed after, convulsing uncontrollably on the ground as white froth bubbled out from the side of his mouth. Reacting instinctively, Kagari and Oboro jumped away from their teammate, just in time to avoid the two kunai that now embedded themselves harmlessly in the ground.

Kagari's and Oboro's hands both blurred: "Bunshin no Jutsu _(Clone Technique)_!" As several clones appeared around them with swirling clouds of mist, they rapidly continued to form seals in succession: "Doton: Dochū Eigyo no Jutsu _(Earth Release: Earth Swim Technique)_!" The earth below them turned fluid, and the two rapidly sunk below its depths, leaving behind their clones. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the tremors of unmistakable battle filtered through the earth towards them. Oboro turned to Kagari, who nodded back at him, his eyes narrowed from behind his rebreather.

The two burst back up to the surface, spinning in midair as their umbrellas rapidly spat out poison-tipped needles in opposite directions. All around them, as they stood back-to-back in their practiced stances, their sacrificial clones burst into mist. Oboro blinked at the dark clearing around them.

"Where are they?!" he hissed, looking around rapidly. Given that they hadn't even sensed their enemy creeping up on them, he hadn't expected to take them out so easily – but he hadn't expected the enemy to simply not be there. But all he could see was Kagari's anxious face besides his and – what was that small blue thing fluttering around above them next to that stalactite? Wait, was that a _bird_? This far underground?

Before he could even open his mouth to yell out a warning however, his remaining teammate dropped like a stone besides him, white froth creeping out from his orifices.

Oboro felt his heart sink as he remembered the promise he'd made to his younger brother before he'd left the village. Quickly making up his mind, he threw his umbrella down on the ground and raised his hands.

"I surrender," he said loudly. "Just let me and my teammates live and I'll give you our plates." Just as his eyes flicked down to his left pocket, he saw a flash of red above him. His heart thudded sickeningly. And then everything turned black.

_Lucky..._

* * *

Naruto didn't know what to think, and this – there were no other words for it – simply bewildered him. He was no stranger to pain, and over time, he had gotten into the habit of analyzing the cause of everything that hurt him. He reasoned that to minimize pain, he had to understand it. But what he was feeling now wasn't the usual kind of pain, which was like the sharp edge of a blade or a kunai that swung cleanly through an appendage. Instead, what he felt now was like a blunt axe that hacked away at the fraying edges of his mind, as a numbing sense of disbelief and something else he couldn't name spread throughout his body.

"_So go tell your village and your Hokage. Go tell them that Takigakure's raising up a weapon, in order to become one of the five great villages. Come and destroy it for us."_

Naruto had moved methodically to tighten the rope bindings around the two Takigakure genins, but his mind had already begun to race with the implications.

If Roki was telling the truth – and his body language and tone all supported that he was – then first of all, this meant that there was more than one tailed beast still roaming the world.

Naruto had tried once before to look up information about the Kyūbi in the Archive Library, as he was unable to dismiss the feeling of uneasiness he'd gotten during Mizuki-sensei's Memorial Day lecture. And he had managed to ascertain one thing before being chased out by the chūnin librarian: that there was absolutely not even a single scroll on its origins, its known powers, or its fate. Granted, he didn't think that there could have been extensive research on such a colossal force of nature, but the fact that there was absolutely no information on it could mean only one thing – that it was classified, not to be disclosed to the general public. It gave him a headache to think of it, and Naruto had decided that it must have been one of the village's top secrets, something to be handled only by the elite and the Hokage himself, and certainly not by lowly Academy students such as himself. And so, he had put his inquisitiveness aside.

But now, he found himself being forced back into a similar train of thoughts. And as fearful as the thought of tailed beasts in the plural was, the second implication in the genin's words was in Naruto's opinion, even worse: that these monsters of legend could actually be sealed away within people. He didn't know much about Fūinjutsu, except that it was a type of jutsu that sealed objects within other objects. He'd always assumed there was a limit to what could be sealed, and what could be done with what was sealed.

But if a tailed beast could be sealed within a person...and if that person could somehow harness the tailed beast's chakra, then such a person might very well be _invincible. _And Roki had said that Takigakure was raising up such a person – a jinchūriki, he'd called it – in order to become one of the five great villages. Did this mean that all of the great villages had a jinchūriki of their own? A weapon, that by all intents of nature, shouldn't exist? If that was the case, then could the Kyūbi not in fact have been destroyed by the Fourth Hokage? Could he have sealed it away instead? Inside a person? Maybe even a baby?

Naruto suddenly recalled that the Fourth had been a sealing master. He had found this out when he'd been trying to figure out what the black seal on his abdomen was. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen his seal in a long time. But that was because it only appeared when he nudged his red chakra. But why was he thinking of his red chakra now? He hadn't touched, or thought of it in years.

"_Come and destroy it for us." _Roki's hate-filled eyes flashed once more in his mind's memory. Naruto felt another headache coming. He knew those eyes very well. Where had he seen those kinds of eyes before? Hadn't they –

"Naruto!" He jerked in surprise, his hand automatically reaching for the tantō strapped across his back. Besides him, the dark-haired genin blanched and took a step back; recognizing his teammate, Naruto immediately relaxed and let go of the blade's handle.

"Sorry," he said. Looking around, Naruto noted in surprise that the Takigakure genins were nowhere to be seen. In fact, they seemed to be walking somewhere. For a split second, he couldn't remember where and why they were moving.

"What's up with you?" said Rai, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Nothing, I just spaced out," he lied.

"'Spaced out'?" repeated Rai disbelievingly, making quotation signs with his fingers. "'_Spaced out'_? Naruto, you don't _space out_ – " But he was cut off by a sharp look from Mayu, and trailed off mumbling darkly to himself.

The rest of the second exam passed by quickly and easily, despite their increasing misgivings. Naruto's shadow clone found an Amegakure team with two plates that had let their guards down enough for them to be sneaked up on. Mayu's genjutsu incapacitated two of them with ease, and after Naruto took down the third with a simple chop across the back of his neck, they trussed up their second genin team to a boulder. With three plates now in their possession, they rested briefly before moving onwards, and after several more hours with no further confrontations, they finally reached the end of the maze.

They emerged out of the sloping dark tunnel to see that it was midday aboveground. They were somewhere in the desert away from the Suna village, and there was not a cloud in the sky. The strong sunlight seared their eyes after having spent days in almost constant darkness. Nevertheless, Rai flung himself on the hot sandy ground with a moan of bliss, soaking up the sunlight with his outstretched arms. Following him outside, a wide smile spread across Mayu's face even as her eyes squinted in pain. Even her posture visibly opened up, like a butterfly unfurling its wings into the open. Naruto on the other hand, remained tense, his eyes roving around as if looking for possible ambush spots. Rai, seeing this, rolled his watering eyes.

"Naruto, we're finally out of that hellhole. Lighten up. _Literally_."

Naruto wordlessly shook his head. Rai sighed in long-suffering exasperation. But before he could say anything else, the sound of light footsteps alerted them to a Suna chūnin climbing up the hill towards them. His face was mostly covered with bandages and a face mask, and he wore the standard Suna flak jacket.

"Plates please," the chūnin said, holding his hand out expectantly. Mayu began to reach inside the folds of her cloak, fumbling to find them with an increasingly reddening face. However, just as her face brightened as her hands closed over the plates, Naruto flung out four shuriken from his holster. As the shuriken spiraled through the air towards the chūnin with a whistling sound, Rai let out a yelp of surprise – but instantly, the chūnin had his kunai out, and batted away the shuriken with ease. As Naruto immediately relaxed, Mayu stared gapingly down at the shuriken embedded in the ground, and then back up at Naruto. Slowly, the chūnin purposefully lowered his kunai, and leveled his gaze at Naruto. "Attack an examiner again, and you'll be disqualified from the exam."

"I apologize," said Naruto. "I had to check. For all we knew, you could have been another examinee trying to take our plates at the very last second." It was difficult to tell the chūnin's facial expression from behind his mask, but Naruto could've sworn he saw something twitch.

"And how does attacking me prove anything?" asked the man.

"Anyone who could react that instantaneously and calmly wouldn't have had to resort to tricks like this," reasoned Naruto. "Nor did you immediately start fighting back, leading me to the conclusion that you are meant to be here." The man tipped his head in acceptance.

"My name is Tsubusa," he said, "and I am one of the chūnin examiners for this year's Chūnin Selection Exam at Sunagakure. It has been exactly 29 hours and 44 minutes since the exam began. Congratulations on passing the second exam." The three genin shared relieved looks.

As Tsubusa led them back to the village, picking his way through a sandy path that only he seemed to be able to see, Naruto noticed several other entrances scattered around the ground. In the distance, he saw another worn out team emerging up to the ground as a Suna chūnin patiently waited for them.

"How do you guys know when to pick us up?" Rai piped up from behind him.

"Cameras," said Tsubusa. "Contrary to what some may have thought, the second exam was not meant as an all-out battle royale, with the examiners being blind to its happenings."

"And you guys wanted to see what the future ninja of other villages have got up their sleeves, eh?"

"That too," Tsubusa admitted.

"So did you see that girl that attacked us?" Rai continued conversationally. "She creamed us." Naruto stopped short. At the same time, Rai let out a yelp of pain and stumbled forward; it appeared that Mayu had kicked him. "What was that f – oh..."

"We did not have a camera in every tunnel, so we may have missed that one," Tsubusa replied calmly. But Naruto's eyes narrowed. The pause before he'd spoken had been a millisecond too long; Naruto was certain that he was lying. And he would have bet his prized tantō that every single Suna examiner and official knew of Takigakure's jinchūriki. But for now, it seemed they would be feigning ignorance. The question was – had they found out from Roki's outburst, or had they known even before that? And if they had – why had they let her participate in their exam?

* * *

Naruto and his team were brought past the village gate and inside one of the circular clay buildings. Contrary to its heavy and dull appearance, it was cool and airy inside, and they gratefully removed their heavy cloaks. Mayu sniffed her sleeve and cringed, thrusting the cloak away from her.

To Rai's outrage, they were the second team once again to pass, this time having been beat out by Gai's team of rookies. The three rookies looked battered, but thrilled about their success; when Neji saw them enter and gave them a cool smirk, Mayu had to physically restrain Rai.

With three days left as the second exam continued, they were guided to separate quarters where they could clean up, eat, and rest. After taking a long refreshing bath, and saying good night to his teammates (Rai looked disappointed; he had been excited about going out to explore the village, but had been told by Tsubusa that they were not allowed to leave the building until the exam was over in order to prevent sabotage), Naruto turned in early and tossed and turned in his bed all night.

The next day, he rose early and was surprised to see that breakfast had been laid just outside his door. It was a tray of Suna cuisine, and nothing that he was used to; the meat was chewy and dry, and his soup, filled with something that looked like seaweed but tasted sweet complemented it uniquely. Nevertheless, as Naruto ate, he felt a touch of nostalgia, remembering back to the caretaker who had once prepared all of his meals.

Strangely enough, he had never seen her again after she left him, and for the first time in years, he wondered where she was. Naruto couldn't even remember her face; all he could remember was that she had been stern, and quick with her hand. He suddenly wondered why he'd been left with a caretaker, and not in the orphanage like every other child in Konoha who'd lost their parents in the war. He'd never thought too deeply of it before, but now, he wondered how he could never have questioned it before. And yet, each question raised even further questions.

After breakfast as planned, Naruto and his teammates assembled in the corridor that connected their rooms. Because their own clothes were dirty and being washed, they all wore the dark-colored long tunics that was Suna's traditional clothing. While the clothes were surprisingly lightweight and cool, Naruto privately thought it made them all look lumpy and shapeless.

He hadn't noticed the night before because it had been too dark, but now that sunlight had crept into the hallway, Naruto saw that there was a small circular window that looked outside. Stepping forward and peering out, he realized that it overlooked the center of the village market. The sun was still rising, and hung low in the sky, but he could see the market was already beginning to bustle with activity.

"I wonder how many teams passed the second exam," said Rai, with a great yawn. "Since we ended with three plates instead of two, that means we took out two teams, right?"

"There were around twenty teams left at the beginning of the second exam, and the maximum that can pass is half of that," said Naruto. "So yes."

"Awesome. So, what do you think the third exam will be?"

"Some kind of sparring match, probably," said Mayu, leaning against the wall. "My brother told me that's what most villages do for the third exam when they host the Chūnin exams."

"Sparring, huh?" said Rai, scratching his nose. "I hope I'm paired with someone easy then. Someone like Tenten or one of those other rookies. And not...hm, let's see. Oh, I know. I really wouldn't like to go up against that – what'd they call her? That _jinchūriki_ then. If she beat _Naruto_ that easily, the rest of us wouldn't stand a chance." Glancing around the corridor to make sure it was empty, his voice nevertheless dropped an octave. "Is it even fair though, having her in the exam? We're just genins – even Naruto here wouldn't stand a chance against a tailed beast." Mayu shifted uncomfortably, biting her lip.

"Assuming the third exam involves one-on-one sparring, it's not to say that you have to absolutely win your match to pass," said Naruto. "The first two exams were to weed out the weak; now that only the strong genins are left, they'll be wanting us to showcase our abilities. So even if you lose to your opponent, if you make a strong showing, you could still pass."

"That makes sense," said Rai seriously. And then, a sly smile spread itself across his face, his scar twisting as it did so. "Guess Tenten doesn't stand a chance then."

"Oh, this again. Just leave her alone! What do you have against her?" admonished Mayu.

"Everything," Rai shot back.

"Grow up!" As the two began to bicker back and forth, Naruto tuned them out as he continued looking out the window. This was the second village outside of his own that he'd ever seen in his life, and the similarities and differences he found were startling to him. The people of Konoha were more boisterous and familiar, greeting each other with wide grins and a slap on the back or a kiss to the cheek. The people of Suna on the other hand seemed much calmer and more reserved. As he watched, though people politely greeted each other good morning, there was always a certain distance between each other. Naruto wondered if it was merely custom, or if the extreme climates of the desert had bred a certain kind of personality. But at the same time, people here also woke up early to go to the market to buy food to put on the table for their families.

Suddenly, there was a loud banging noise just below his window. Naruto instinctively reared back, his hand reaching for his tantō once more. There was a lull in the cacophony behind him, and striding over, Rai stuck his head out the window and glanced down.

"Someone just knocked something over, Naruto," he said, turning around. "What're you being so jittery for? You've been really weird lately."

"It's nothing," Naruto said. "I'm just tired." Rai shook his head, but let it go. Stretching once more and saying something about looking for the kitchen to get more food, the dark-haired genin shot off down the corridor. As soon as he disappeared around the corner, Mayu mumbled something about having to brush her teeth, and fled into her room.

After a moment's hesitation, Naruto walked back to the window and looked down. Pieces of a red clay pot were scattered on the ground; the contents seemed to be merely some kind of dark brown bean, but for some reason, everyone in the market was giving it a wide berth. Standing in the middle, paying no attention to the beans strewn around his feet, was a boy who looked Naruto's age, with spiky auburn hair. But that was where the physical similarities ended. He was much paler, and was wearing Suna genin attire. Naruto was fairly certain he hadn't seen him in the Chūnin exams: he knew he would've remembered someone like that in the exam. The boy was standing stiffly with his arms crossed, seemingly observing the flow of traffic that circled fearfully around him. Then without warning, the boy tilted his head back, and with wrathful black ringed eyes, glared hatefully back up at Naruto.

Naruto stepped back away from the window. Retreating to the opposite end of the corridor, where it was still dark, he leaned against the wall and slid down to the ground, massaging his temples. The blunt axe was back again, accompanied once more by that aching headache that prickled and lurked at the edges of his consciousness.

"I am..." he said quietly to the familiar darkness. "I am likely a jinchūriki."

* * *

**A/N:** This is a transitional chapter so it's not very exciting...but Naruto has finally realized the truth (or an inkling of it). Yep. Anyways, moving on, the third exam is next! I really dislike writing action scenes because I'm awful at it (just ask my flamers), so it won't take too long.

**Edit 7/13/13: **Fixed a certain continuity error and added little details here and there.


End file.
